


The Legacy of Darth Terranis

by alinbussu



Category: ARMA (Video Games), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Earth is in the Star Wars Universe, Gen, Giant AU, Hera Syndulla is force sensitive, I am bad at tagging as this is my first work on here, She is also a Sith, She was also a human before
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2019-11-15 12:35:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 35,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18073505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alinbussu/pseuds/alinbussu
Summary: This is going to be the only really long notes as I have a few things to explain.1. I know the idea of Earth being in the Star Wars universe is pretty uninspired but I have planned that in later chapters it will be fully explained.2. Most of Hera's back story will be explained in the prequel to this that I am planning to start realeasing by the beginning of April, so stay tuned for that but I am writing this as a standalone work, so I am hoping that I am explaining most her relevant back story well enough.3. I will try to release a chapter weekly or bi-weekly but please keep in mind that I also have school at the same time.4. English is not my first language so most likely there will be grammar or spelling mistakes. I tried to correct them as well as I could but some of them might slip through.5. I encourage anyone that reads this work to criticize it. I need constructive criticism to become better at writing.Anyways have a good read.





	1. A New Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be the only really long notes as I have a few things to explain.  
> 1\. I know the idea of Earth being in the Star Wars universe is pretty uninspired but I have planned that in later chapters it will be fully explained.  
> 2\. Most of Hera's back story will be explained in the prequel to this that I am planning to start realeasing by the beginning of April, so stay tuned for that but I am writing this as a standalone work, so I am hoping that I am explaining most her relevant back story well enough.  
> 3\. I will try to release a chapter weekly or bi-weekly but please keep in mind that I also have school at the same time.  
> 4\. English is not my first language so most likely there will be grammar or spelling mistakes. I tried to correct them as well as I could but some of them might slip through.  
> 5\. I encourage anyone that reads this work to criticize it. I need constructive criticism to become better at writing.  
> Anyways have a good read.

**3rd of March, 2036**

**1500 hours, Camp Tempest, North American Sector**

 

_ “It’s been over an year since the assassination of Grand General Hera Syndulla, the very woman that united the world in its most dire times. Military parades have been organized all over the world in her memory. Even though many people openly criticized her leadership, no one can ignore the fact that she had united us…” _

 

One of the two men inside the room turned off the TV as the door to the same room opened. Both men got up from their chairs as a sign of respect to whoever was entering the room. Someone did enter the room but the person wasn’t human, seemed like one but wasn’t. The first indication that the woman wasn’t human was the colour of her skin, it was a bright green instead of any other skin tone seen on Earth. The second indication and the only other one was the lack of hair on her head, instead of said hair there were two tail-like appendages emerging from her head and going down her back. The colour of her eyes was a light green, almost matching the colour of her alien skin tone but they were void of any emotion along with her expression, both were cold and unforgiving.

 

“It’s good to be back…” said the alien

 

“We feel the same General.” replied one of the men

 

“Anyways get me up to speed to what’s been happening since I was gone.”

 

“Well take a seat and we’ll start.” said one of the man as they pulled the chair at the head of the long table for the General to sit at.

 

The two men took a seat at each side, and began placing dozens of different documents in front of the alien General.

 

“The federation is holding up and the former CSAT states are not causing any problems…” said one of the men

 

“What about the colonies on Mars, how are they developing?”

 

“They are doing well and the construction of the space elevator is going according to schedule, it should be ready within five months.”

 

“Anything on extraterrestrial life?”

 

“Actually yes, we have picked up a transmission around four light years away and our technicians have confirmed it to be some sort of emergency beacon as it’s repeating at certain intervals. We have also managed to replicate the signal, with your authorisation we can begin broadcasting it and maybe attract whoever can detect it. “

 

“Excellent idea Miller…” said the alien. “You have my permission, start broadcasting the signal at once.”

 

“One last thing General Syndulla…”

 

“What is it Smith?”

 

“You may be interested in this…” said Smith as he handed her another document.

 

As soon as she opened the document and read the first line of text she was filled with disgust.

 

“George Scott…” said Hera, her disgust could be easily felt in her voice. “Where is he?” she asked as she closed the document.

 

“After the assassination he managed to return to the States. He went off the grid for a few months but he seemed to have resurfaced recently as his charges were cleared. He currently lives with his family in a house out in the Maryland countryside. “ explained Smith

 

“It's about time I pay him a visit… “ said Hera with a cold smile on her face

 

“With all due respect General, we can't risk you being spotted by anyone. “ said Smith

 

“There is no need to worry Smith. “ said Hera calmly. “Get me Johnson, James and Allan, they will do well. “

 

The officers looked at each other, they couldn't disobey her orders, they wouldn't dare. After a few seconds of complete silence Miller let out a sigh.

 

“Very well Hera, we’ll get them here and you may  _ visit  _ Scott. “ said Miller

 

Hera got up from the chair, straightened her uniform and began slowly walking towards the door. She looked back at the two officers still sitting at the table and for a few good seconds started at them, her cold eyes scouring their souls.

 

“I'll be in my office, inform me as soon as my old squad is here. “ said Hera as she left the meeting room heading to her office

 

The hallways of the command building almost seemed deserted. Since her assassination, CTRG’s budget was cut over and over again as it wasn't seen as necessary so they had to send their operatives back to their originating armies and to scrap many of their expensive projects.

 

“I'm gone for an year and this happens… “ said Hera with clear disgust

 

Eventually she arrives at her office at the last story of the building. A dusty golden plaque could be seen on the door. She proceeded to wipe it clean of the dust.  _ “CTRG General Hera Syndulla”  _ the plaque read. She let out a deep sigh as old memories came back to her,after all most of her old life was spent in there. Hera eventually opened the door to her old office and went in. The first thing she put her eyes was her desk, especially one of the items on it, the Sith holocron. Hera slowly walked around her dusty office, wiping what she could clear of the dust that has been gathering since her departure an year ago.

 

“Such a wasted potential… “ said Hera referring to her barely failed attempt in controlling Earth

 

She then walked behind the desk, wiped her chair clear of dust and sat in said chair. More memories came back to her, she led world from that very desk albeit only for an year or so. While cleaning her desk she did stumble upon the three framed photos of her and Sabine, her sister. Something that was rather weird, after so many confrontations with her sister, many of them ended in Hera almost dying, she still kept Sabine’s memory close to her because during her old life she was struggling to keep the balance and many times after encounters with Sabine she would have mental breakdowns as she couldn't cope with the waves of emotions hitting her and along with her split personality tearing her soul apart, those photos were the only thing keeping her sane. But that was in the past, her old life, her old self. She was given another chance to make it right, she must not fail this time. She had enough time to realise her mistakes and why she failed in the first place, it was her sister, the fact that she could never bring herself to deliver the killing blow, she just cared about her to much. It was decided right then and there, Sabine, Aiden and any others standing in her path are her mortal enemies and will be destroyed no matter what and she will not rest until all of her enemies are dead. After a bit more cleaning around her office, she sat down in the office chair, opened her laptop and started reading reports from over an year ago, reports that she didn't get to read. Hours passed, the sun slowly set over the horizon, warm rays of a yellow brown tint filled her office. Eventually someone knocked on her door, breaking the utter silence that Hera adored so much.

 

“Enter. “ said Hera as she saw Miller enter. “What brings you up here Miller? “

 

“Your team arrived.” said Miller

 

“Good…” said Hera as she got up from the chair and opened a drawer, pulling out a black box. “Also, I want to know where my lightsaber is...” continued Hera as she opened the box and pulled out a M2 Beretta along with three magazines, loading one into the handgun and putting the other two into two pouches on her belt. “Firearms make such an unnecessary mess.” said Hera coldly, a small cold smile appeared on her face. After all that same handgun that she pulled out of that box was the one she used in Oreokastro all those years ago.

 

“I will look into it myself…”

 

“That’s amazing to hear Miller.” said Hera

 

“The rest of your equipment is down in the briefing room, along with your team.”

 

Hera nodded, walking past Miller not showing an ounce of emotion, even though weeks before the assassination they were already planning their engagement, marriage and even the fact they they would have children. After her return, for Miller at least, it seemed that the Hera he knew, his future wife, was gone and will probably never come back. Sadly he had to accept that, if he wouldn’t he would just be named a traitor and end up like Major Dutton, someone that tried to get Hera killed multiple times so she wouldn’t climb up the ranks seeing that she would be nothing short of a global threat if she got any significant power, tortured to death and then your corpse thrown out in the middle of a forest.

 

“I’m sorry I’m this cold with you Miller, but it will take some time for me to get used to all of this.”  said Hera as she turned around briefly towards Miller.

 

_ “I just signed my execution order.”  _ thought Miller.

 

“There’s nothing to be afraid of Miller, I won’t kill you, you’re still important to me…” Hera said softly

 

A small smile appeared on Miller’s face, a sign of relief seeing that he was wrong regarding Hera, maybe some good is still in there after all. Hera returned the smile, a short warm smile appeared on her alien face. A few seconds later Hera broke off the smile, turned a corner and headed down a flight of stairs.

 

\---

 

**6 hours earlier**

**Camp Fortitude, Tanoa, Tanoan Archipelago**

 

“This place is quite undermanned for a CTRG base.” remarked Sabine

 

“We should be glad it is…After all this is a Sith temple.” said Aiden

 

The duo easily entered the small camp as it was lightly defended and barely manned by any CTRG operatives and the few operatives that were present were no match for the two Jedi, but one thing they didn’t know was that they managed to get a distress call out.

 

“How about we get this finished as soon as we can...this place gives me the creeps.”

 

“Patience Sabine, I don’t even know how that beacon looks like.” said Aiden

 

“Why do we need this  _ beacon  _ in the first place anyways?” asked Sabine

 

“We need to get a message out to the Republic about the imminent threat of the Sith.” replied Aiden

 

“Wasn’t Hera the giant threat to the galaxy in the first place?”

 

“If she would have left Earth she would have been, but she didn’t did she now.” replied Aiden

 

“I guess…” said Sabine under her breath

 

Aiden immediately noticed the behavioural change as soon as Hera was mentioned, somehow she still didn’t get over her death and for the better of both of them she needed to get over it, or something way worse might happen.

 

“Sabine…” Aiden said softly. “Please, put her in the past, it’s been over an year and we need to move on.” continued Aiden

 

“I don’t know if I can, we had an unbreakable bond, I still have hope that she didn’t die evil, that she had a peaceful death...” said Sabine as tears came to her eyes

Aiden quickly rushed to comfort her  _ only  _ remaining daughter. Aiden shed a tear as well, Hera was her mortal enemy but she still wished for her long gone daughter to have had a peaceful departure as everyone should have, no matter how evil they were.

 

“Now come on, we need to find this beacon before they send in backup if they got a distress call out.” said Aiden as she broke off the hug

 

“You’re right…” said Sabine as she swept away her tears. “I’ll try my best to put her in my past mom.”

 

Aiden’s face lit up, a warm smile appeared on both of their faces. For the first time in years Sabine accepted her sister’s fate.

 

“I’m very proud of you Sabine…” said Aiden softly. “Now look for anything that resembles a console, basically look for something with a lot of buttons and if this Sith was big into technology we should be able to find some sort of communication equipment strong enough to reach Coruscant or anything in Republic space.”

 

The two Jedi quickly went all around the temple, searching the adjacent rooms, scouring the many containers scattered all around the temple and the camp itself, finding nothing. On the brink of giving up the search Sabine checked the sarcophage for one last time until something dawned on her, the wall right behind her seemed out of place, much like the entrance to the Jedi temple over on Altis. She slowly walked over to the wall, checking the sides for any levers or buttons that would open a door but she couldn’t find anything.

 

“I’ll have to open it the hard way then…” said Sabine

 

Sabine closed her eyes and brought both of her hands in front of her, reaching with the force towards the wall to move it out of the way. The wall began rocking, it was slowly splitting in half, much like a sliding door would open. Aiden, hearing the loud noises turned around to see the door opened and Sabine was heading down the short hall leading to a secret chamber. As soon as Sabine entered the room she laid her eyes on what appeared to be a console, at least by her mother’s description. Aiden shortly entered the room as well and laid her eyes on the set of rugged and vine covered screens and consoles and she quickly rushed to the console, trying to figure out if it is still functional.

 

“How old is this stuff?” asked Sabine

 

“Around 2000 years old if I’m not wrong…” said Aiden in a rather calm tone

 

“You expect 2000 year old tech to be able to still work?”

 

“Compared to what is available on Earth this stuff is quite advanced…” said Aiden as she started pressing a couple of buttons on the console. “Yes!”

 

All the displays and consoles suddenly lit up and some sort of unknown alien language appeared on the displays, Sabine couldn’t make any sense of it but for Aiden appeared to be able to read it.

 

“So...What does it say?” asked Sabine

 

“We’re in the luck Sabine…” said Aiden. “This temple has a subspace transmitter, it’s more than capable of transmitting a message across the Galaxy.” explained Aiden

 

“Then record that message, send it and let’s get out of here.” said Sabine

 

“Again Sabine, patience, you need to be patient to succeed in anything.” said Aiden. “We’ll have to wait for a response anyways.” said Aiden as she started recording the message

 

“Fine… “ said Sabine. “But I’m waiting outside.” said Sabine as she headed out of the temple

 

“Very well, just be careful.” said Aiden. “Alright then...let’s begin.” said Aiden as she pressed a button on the console.  _ “This message must be shown to the Jedi Council as soon as received. I’m Jedi Padawan Selonna Beillane under the tutelage of Jedi Knight Thion Rehal, I left the Jedi Order forty-nine standard years ago and I now reside on Solum as it is registered in the Archives, a planet in the Unknown Regions. Eight standard years ago me and my soulmate experienced a vision…”  _ Aiden paused.  _ “The Sith will come back to the Galaxy and the Jedi Order will be destroyed.”  _ said Aiden firmly.  _ “I am sending this message to warn you of the upcoming storm, please, for the future of the Galaxy and the Jedi Order take this message seriously.”  _ said Aiden as she pressed another button on the console, stopping the recording. She proceeded to press more buttons and the console chimed with a series of short beeps. The message was sent. Aiden picked up some sort of tablet from the console and headed out of the temple to meet with her daughter that was waiting outside.  __

 

“Is it sent?” asked Sabine

 

“It is sent, now we just need to wait for a reply, in the meantime let’s leave this base and find a good place to stay.” replied Aiden

 

“Didn’t you say that we would need to wait here?”

 

“Not if you have one of these.” said Aiden as she brought up a hand sized tablet that appeared to be transparent. “Datapad linked to the console, we’ll be able to see it here if we get a reply.”

 

“Well I took some supplies from the storage of the base, enough to sustain us for a whole week.” said Sabine

 

“Good, let’s head out and find a place to set up camp for a few days.” said Aiden as the two headed out of the camp and into the jungle.

 

**\---**

 

**In the present**

**1900 hours, Camp Tempest, North American Sector**

 

There were three men in full CTRG combat gear, their helmets and rifles on the table, waiting in the briefing room for someone. After a few more minutes of waiting the door opened and Hera walked in. The three men were left speechless at the sight of the alien and how calm she was, it was like she had been here many times before and they were right Hera was here before, but they didn't know that the alien was Hera herself. Since the first moment the alien entered the room the three men tried to figure out who or what she was but they couldn't really see her face because the alien turned to the left as soon as she entered to pick up a carrier rig left for her and proceeded to equip it. Soon after she turned around and it suddenly became clear to who the alien female was.

 

“General…” said Johnson

 

“How’s it’s been since I left Johnson?” asked Hera calmly

 

“Uhh...It could’ve been better.” replied Johnson stuttering

 

“I know this is a lot for all three of you take in but we have a mission.”

 

The three men looked at eachother, not knowing how to take the information they just received but they were loyal, more than anyone in the CTRG to their General and she was back after all. After a few moments of silence Johnson stepped up.

 

“Spectre 2-4 reporting for duty!” said Johnson as all three men stood at attention

A small smile appeared on Hera’s face, her most loyal soldiers just came back to her.

 

“At ease.”

 

“What’s the mission?” asked Allan

 

“We’re paying a visit to my old friend, now retired, General George Scott.” Hera started explaining

 

“Isn’t he still wanted for treason?” asked James

 

“Not anymore sadly, he was cleared of his charges after he assassinated me. “ replied Hera

 

“Where does he live then, we’ll bring him to you.” said Johnson sternly

 

“All four of us are going to his house out in the country, from what we know he lives with his family, a wife, son and daughter. “ Hera explained

 

“Is there any security?” asked Allan

 

“He has a security system, movement sensors, CCTV cameras and probably some guards around the property, nothing that we can’t handle.” said Hera

 

“What’s the plan then?” asked Johnson

 

“Allan will set up overwatch here, in this water tower around 600 meters away from the property…” said Hera as she pointed at a water tower on a map on the table. “Meanwhile James will go around the back and disable the security system and after he managed to do that me and Johnson will head in and meet with the lovely General.”

 

“Sounds good to me.” said Johnson

 

“Any objections?” asked Hera, the room was silent. “Very well, get the rest of your equipment and meet me outside.” said Hera as she headed out the door but right before she left the room she picked up a pair of keys from the same table she got her carrier rig from and threw them to Johnson. “You’re driving Johnson!” said Hera as she finally left the room

 

A small chuckle came out of Johnson’s mouth. “Just like the old times…” said Johnson quietly. “Come on guys, let’s not make her wait.”


	2. Message Received - Part I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since this chapter is really long I'll be posting this in a couple of parts over the next few days.

**1 hour later**  
**The Scott Residence, Maryland, North American Sector**

The country house was silent, the only person awake was now retired General George Scott, calmly watching the evening news when the doorbell rang. He got up and slowly walked towards the door. It was out of the ordinary to have someone come to his home this late especially because he was so far away from any proper urban centres.

 _“Maybe it's just some lost tourists asking for directions… “_ Scott thought

He didn't even manage to open the door completely because as soon as he unlocked it was kicked in by the person outside. Scott was knocked off his feet and fell on the ground as he was really close to the door. He didn't even manage to react to what just happened and he could feel the cold barrel of a rifle press against his skull. Scott finally got to look up to the person carrying the rifle, a tall man, couldn't figure out who he was as he was wearing a balaclava and a helmet that almost covered his head and then he proceeded to look down at the rest of the person's body, suddenly his face went pale as his senses came back and realised who just put him on the floor, a CTRG operative wearing the iconic green and black dazzled camouflage.

“They’re back for revenge…” Scott thought

Scott closed his eyes, waiting for the operative to pull the trigger, after all he killed their leader. Moments turned into seconds, he wasn’t dead, something wasn’t right.

“Get him up.” a female voice ordered

Scott was swiftly grabbed by the operative, still half concussed from the fall and brought up to head level. Someone was staring right at him, or something, he couldn’t really figure out what it was, it was definitely not human since no human had green skin. When his vision finally cleared, a few seconds after he was brought up, his eyes went wide as he realised who was the one staring at him, the person that he killed an year ago was back and she was definitely back for revenge seeing her wide smile.

“How are you alive!?” yelled Scott, his fear, disbelief and anger could all be heard in his tone

“Long story old friend…” said Hera as she slowly traced her hand on his cheek. “How about we have a talk? We have a lot to catch up on.” said Hera

The now retired General couldn’t believe what he was seeing, how could she be alive? He killed her over an year ago and he made sure she was dead, two shoots point blank to the chest, right in the heart and one in the head to finish her off. No one could survive that, not even Hera and she didn’t, the “almighty” Grand General of the Human Federation died. The fact alone that she came back, in another body that was resembling her’s, with the same powers was nothing short of supernatural as it could only be the work of some sort of supernatural entity that for some reason would want to bring such an evil being back to life.

“Get him to the living room, tie him to a chair and bring the rest of his family down here as well, I’m sure that they will enjoy what’s about to happen.” Hera ordered

“Don’t you dare touch them you monster!” barked Scott

“And also can you please tell the General to keep quiet for me, Johnson?” asked Hera

Scott was quickly struck by the butt of the rifle carried by Johnson as soon as the order was given, knocking him out for a few minutes. Johnson proceeded to drag his unconscious body to the living room and then tied him to a chair.

“Go get the rest, if they try to fight back shoot them without hesitation.” ordered Hera coldly

Johnson nodded and then ran up the stairs of the house. Shortly after screams could be heard from the top floor and after a minute of waiting three people come down the stairs along with Johnson holding them at gunpoint. The three people, a woman in her early forties, a girl on the verge of adulthood and a boy no older than fifteen were walked over to the same room with Scott and sat down on the couch next to Scott, their fear could easily be seen on their face.

“Such a beautiful family reunion, isn’t it Johnson?” said Hera, almost laughing

“Is that…” said the sixteen year old girl

“It’s her Amanda...It’s her.” said Scott in a completely defeated tone

“Are you going to kill us?” Amanda asked, her face was almost as stern as Hera’s.

“Don’t be silly Amanda, that would make me a murder wouldn’t it?” replied Hera sarcastically. “How about you help me?”

Amanda’s eyes shot wide open, along with everyone else's, even Johnson was surprised by her decision. At the same time, why would Hera choose do this? It was something intentional, before Hera was even a General she was second-in-command to Scott when they were deployed on Altis together and they got rather close to each other, at least that’s what Scott thought, in reality Hera was, just getting close to him to make him reveal evidence about his dealings with CSAT, a major contender to NATO before The Third World War. After the deployment they met a few times at his country house in Virginia and Hera got really close to Amanda, she kinda reminded her of herself when she was a teenager, blunt, competitive, ambitious and most importantly opportunistic, extremely opportunistic. There was a chance that she would choose her well being over her family's, after all she didn't have a good relationship with them. Amanda hated her mother for being so overprotective, especially after her father came back, she was forced to leave the school that she was in, leave her entire life behind because of her father and his suicidal plan to kill Hera and not to even mention the fact that she wanted a career in the Army, that dream was also shattered by her family's overprotective behaviour. All of this hate towards her family has been building up for an year now and it now reached a boiling point. It was time that she gets her revenge on her family for ruining her future. After a few moments Amanda got up and walked over to Hera, she had made her choice.

“Wise choice dear.” said Hera

Hera took her handgun from her holster, proceeded to cock back the slide and made sure that it was loaded and then handed it to Amanda. She looked down at the pistol in her hand, Amanda was having seconds thoughts and Hera noticed that.

“Stop holding yourself back Amanda.” Hera whispered. “If you choose them you will not have a future!”

“Don’t listen to her Amanda!” yelled the forty year old woman

“It’s your choice Amanda.” said Hera calmly

Amanda made her choice. She slowly rose her head, her blue eyes were ice-cold, her face emotionless, soon after also rose the hand that was holding the handgun and quickly took aim at her mother and without hesitation pulled the trigger. A cold smile appeared on Hera’s face.

“Now your brother.” ordered Hera

Again, without hesitation Amanda took aim and pulled the trigger. The boy’s body fell on the ground as he tried to reach for Amanda to stop her taking another shot.

“What have you done to her you bloodthirsty monster?!” barked Scott

Before Hera could even reply Amanda walked over to her father and at point blank shot her father twice in the heart region, most likely hitting it. Scott could only look in horror at his gunshot wound as blood was flooding out of it. He slowly rose his head to see his daughter taking aim at his head, his vision was already tunelled by the loss of blood and the last thing he could see was his daughter, emotionless, stone-cold and a pair of golden eyes watching over her shoulder. Amanda quickly pulled the trigger and executed her father in cold blood. She then turned around to Hera and handed her handgun back, not even being startled by the change in her eye colour, almost like she saw them before. Hera holstered her pistol and then placed her hand on Amanda’s shoulder.

“Come with me dear, you’ve made the right choice.” said Hera as both of them walked towards the door, leaving the corpses of the Scott family behind, Amanda not even looking back for a second.

“What now? “asked Amanda quietly

“Now Amanda I'm giving you another choice, you can either come with me and join the CTRG or you can walk off and try to start a new life. “

Amanda didn’t reply, instead she embraced Hera. Hera welcomed this response, she actually hugged Amanda back. During this, Hera’s eyes turned back to their normal warm light green. A few seconds later Hera’s radio went off.

_“I’ve found something that you may be interested in.”_

“I’ll be on my way Johnson, you’re on the second floor right?”

_“Right. Also I just finished setting up the explosives, watch out so you don’t trip on any wires.”_

Hera calmly walked back towards the house and right before she entered it she turned around to Amanda, she was in her nightdress in the cold that also had splatters of blood, her face was full of sorrow and regret. It was something extremely rare for Hera to show any doubt or regret after killing or having someone killed, but seeing Amanda’s state, she herself had second thoughts but these thoughts must be swept away, she can’t let her emotions get in the way of her success, not for a second time. A small warm smile appeared on Hera’s face, right then and there a bond between the two formed, like the one Hera had with her sister, Sabine until Hera’s full turn to the dark side years ago but this time it was a bit different, instead of a sibling bond this was a mother-daughter bond, Hera knew that it was her responsibility now that her parents are dead to take care of Amanda and make sure she grows up.

“I bet you don’t want to wear that nightdress for the rest of your life.” said Hera in a warm motherly tone

Amanda’s face lit up, she felt their bond forming as well even though she didn’t have the powers that Hera had, she knew that her place now was next to Hera after all she was the last person to care about her. Hera gestured to come to her, Amanda shortly followed her back into her home. Seeing all the wires running across the house and the explosives placed on the walls brought Amanda some sorrow, most of her memories were in this house, mostly photos and journals but they still meant something to her.

“Alright Amanda, go get yourself some clean clothes while I check on Johnson and if this makes you feel better you can take anything you feel that would help you cope with what just happened. “ said Hera as she headed towards Johnson who was standing by a door that led to what it seemed to be Scott’s and his wife’s bedroom.

“What did you find Johnson?” asked Hera

Johnson quickly leaned in the room and seemed to have grabbed something from a small nightdesk next to the door. “I found this, along with a bunch of other things that you might be interested in.” said Johnson as he presented Hera with a old hilt made out of a iron like material with engravings in some sort of forgotten language. Hera proceeded to “call” the hilt to her, landing right in her left palm. A wicked grin appeared on her face as she ignited her weapon, the crimson blade emerging from the hilt. Hera didn’t keep the weapon ignited for long as after a few seconds she turned off the weapon and clipped it back to her custom made holster for her sabre.

“What else did you find?”

“I found another one of those hilts, along with this cube.” said Johnson as he handed Hera another hilt and the semi-transparent cube

Hera took the second lightsaber handed to her by Johnson and proceeded to ignite it but this time it was a sapphire blue blade emerging from the hilt of the weapon. She was puzzled by this, both Sabine and Aiden had green blades not blue.

“Maybe it’s from the Jedi temple…” Hera thought

Taking a closer look at the cube Hera immediately knew what it was and who it belonged to, it was the Jedi Holocron from Altis and it surely belonged to the to Jedi, Aiden and Sabine Syndulla.

“How many bedrooms are in this house Johnson?” asked Hera

“This one, two more down the hallway, most likely for the children and then two more at the end of the hallway, they were almost empty except from two beds and a closet in both.”

Hera immediately realised what was going on there. Sabine and Aiden, her sister and mother along with Sawyer and Adrian, the last members of her old squad in the US Marines, stayed with the Scott family after the assassination, the only thing she didn’t know is where are they right now.

“I’ll go check those two bedrooms and while I’m doing that, start defusing the explosives, we are going to set up a trap instead. “

“Will do Hera, but mind if I ask, who are we setting up a trap for?” asked Johnson

“For my mother and sister.” said Hera bluntly

Johnson didn’t say anything after Hera’s response, he simply nodded and began taking apart the explosives. Hera was walking down the hallway when she suddenly stopped by the first bedroom, she felt a familiar presence, her sister was there. She swiftly entered the room and looked around said room for any clues that might help her figure out where her sister was. She went over to the closet, opened it and the only thing in it was an tropical camouflaged American Marines uniform. Hera looked at the name tag. The tag read “S.Syndulla” , her sister’s uniform. Unfortunately Hera didn’t find any clues to where her old family is, but it wasn’t needed either, she planned to just wait for them to come back and when they do she’ll make sure that they won’t escape this time. Meanwhile Amanda was in her room, packing when a phone went off. It was a satellite phone, given to her by her father so she could talk freely without the fear of being tracked by anyone. Her eyes shot wide open when she saw who was calling her, it was Sabine. She quickly tossed the phone under a couple of pillows to try to muffle the ringing and began thinking on what she should do. Two options quickly began outlining themselves, she could answer the phone and warn Sabine and her mother about the trap that was laid by Hera, basically betraying her and most likely would get her killed she could use this opportunity to find out where they are and tell Hera that, most likely earning her trust for the rest of their lives. After a few more moments of thinking she made her choice, she'll stay by Hera. Amanda quickly picked up the phone and answered it.

“Why are you calling me Sabine? “ asked Amanda

 _“Because Scott is not answering. “_ replied Sabine

“He has some problems with his satellite phone, he'll have it fixed by tomorrow. “

_“That's good to hear. Anyways, we managed to get the message out, we are waiting on a reply and as soon as we get one we'll be on the first plane back. “_

“Where were you again? “

_“Tanoa, why are you asking? “_

“Just wondering… “ said Amanda. “I have to go now, take care. “ said Amanda as she hung up

Amanda let out a sigh of relief as soon as the call ended, she tossed the phone on her bed next to her packed bag. She then turned around to grab one last item from a shelf next to the door to her room but before she could take the item Hera entered the room, she heard the entire conversation.

“Why didn't you tell me about this? “ asked Hera in a soft warm tone

Amanda was surprised to hear Hera’s tone, she expected for her to be angry or even to just kill her outright, at least that's what her father told her about Hera, that if you would betray her or show the smallest intent of doing such a thing she'd snap your neck instantly or cut you up in pieces with her red laser sword. She quickly dismissed her past thoughts about Hera, her father must have been wrong about her.

“I'm sorry… I didn't know. “ said Amanda stuttering

“It's alright Amanda. Where are they? “ asked Hera as she embraced Amanda

“Tanoa, they went there to send a message or something like that. “

“Thank you for telling me, now hurry up we need to leave.” said Hera

Amanda quickly grabbed her backpack and headed out the house with Hera. Hera’s team was waiting for them, Johnson stepped up from the three.

“The explosives are defused Hera. Where to?” asked Johnson

“We are going to Tanoa.”


	3. Message Received - Part II

**The Prejudice Venator-class Star Destroyer, Ansion System, Mid Rim**

 

The Prejudice was in orbit over the planet Ansion, within the Mid Rim, the Jedi General Jacen Upari, an elderly human male in his sixties whom the ship was assigned to was in his quarters, meditating, like any other Jedi would between assignments. The door to the Jedi’s quarters opened, a teenager, also human, on the brink of adulthood entered the room. The elderly Jedi opened one of his eyes to see his Padawan learner, Gavin Strax standing in front of him with, holding a datapad in his left hand.

 

“Yes Gavin?” asked Jacen

 

“Master, the Jedi Council just gave us a new assignment.” said Gavin as he handed his master the datapad.

 

The elderly Jedi began scrolling through the information, stopping at the sight of one familiar name, Selonna Beillane. A small smile appeared on the old man’s face.

 

“Selonna…” said Jacen under his breath

 

“I’ve read about her Master, she was exiled a long time ago from the Order.”

 

“I know Gavin, me and Selonna have quite the history together…”

 

“How so?” asked Gavin

 

“I’ll tell you about it on the shuttle to Solum.” said Jacen as he got up from his meditating position.

 

“There is one more thing Master.” said Gavin. Jacen proceeded to raise one of his eyebrows. “There is also an emergency beacon broadcasting from the planet, it’s originating from a island in the southern hemisphere of the planet.”

 

“That must be her, we must hurry, she most likely needs our help.” said Jacen

 

Jacen then followed his Padawan to the hangar of the ship, where in one of the sections of it there was a Eta-class shuttle, a shuttle mainly used by the Jedi. The two proceeded to board said shuttle and with the pressing of several buttons in the cockpit, the shuttle hummed to life. The Jedi then flew the shuttle through the ventral exit of the hangar and then flew for a few minutes away from the Venator.

 

“Are the coordinates set for Solum?” asked Jacen

 

“One second Master.” said Gavin as he continued to press a few buttons on the console in front of him. “There, done.” said Gavin as he pressed one last button and the ship jumped into Hyperspace.

 

**2 hours later**

**Camp Cockrock, Tanoa, Tanoan Archipelago**

 

A C-17 Globemaster II with CTRG markings, the last plane of its kind as most were outphased by the Federation Army, the new global army that was formed after the Third World War by General Syndulla, it unified all of the armies of all NATO countries and other countries across Earth that weren’t part of CSAT as they lost and were disarmed after the conflict had landed on the airfield of the old USMC base, now almost abandoned, around half an hour ago. The Globemaster was almost empty, apart from one UH-80 Ghost Hawk, the standard helicopter for the CTRG along with a few Prowler LSVs. After all the vehicles were unloaded a group of five people walked out of the plane, Spectre 2-4, along with a small addition, Amanda Scott. 

 

“This place is really abandoned…” remarked Johnson. “I’m surprised that the pilots could even land on that runway.”

 

“Do I really have to wear all of this armor?” complained Amanda as she was trying to adjust the helmet as it was too big for her.

 

“There is a possibility that there are insurgents still operating on the main island, and that’s where we are headed.” said Hera. “You’ll get used to it eventually.”

 

“If you really wanted me to be safe then give me a gun.” said Amanda bluntly

 

“You can barely walk with all this equipment and it’s not even that heavy, if we would add a rifle with all of its ammo you wouldn’t even be able to walk for ten meters.” said Johnson

 

“Enough chit-chat, the heli is ready to go.” said Hera as she gestioned to everyone to load in.

 

The Ghost Hawk quickly spun up and took off, heading straight to Camp Fortitude, the CTRG base at the Sith temple on Tanoa

 

\---

 

**High Earth Orbit, Sol System, Unknown Regions**

 

The Jedi shuttle had just exited hyperspace a few moments ago. The two Jedi began checking their sensors and navicomputer to make sure they had arrived at right planet. They indeed did, but something was off, according to their data the planet didn’t have any significant sentient presence. Taking a closer look at the planet they could see entire networks of lights on the dark side of the planet, along with hundreds of satellites orbiting the planet; the signs of a sentient civilisation on the brink of FTL travel.

 

“Can we get a location on the origin of the transmission?” asked Jacen 

 

“I knew that you are going to ask that Master.” said Gavin. “I already have the coordinates, we are making our approach right now. ”

 

“You continue to impress me Gavin.” said Jacen as he got up from the pilot seat and headed towards the door leading to the cargo hold. “I'll be in the other room meditating about this. Notify me as soon as we landed. “

 

Gavin simply nodded and began the reentry procedure. The shuttle quickly entered the atmosphere and rapidly descended. In a matter of seconds the shuttle was at the commercial airline cruising altitude. After a few more seconds they could see Tanoa, they were getting closer. 

 

“Nearing four thousand meters.” said Gavin “Beginning the landing procedure. “

 

\---

 

The jungle was relatively silent at the time, nothing but the noises made by the local fauna along with the wind could be heard. All of the sudden a loud noise filled the air, at that time both Aiden and Sabine were meditating, as any Jedi would. The two Jedi were almost immediately brought back from their meditative state. Sabine swiftly grabbed her radio and contacted Sawyer, one of the two remaining Marines that were in Hera’s squad back in 28’.

 

“Do you know what that was?” asked Sabine calmly

 

_ “It came from the CTRG base.”  _ responded Sawyer

 

“Meet us there ASAP.” ordered Sabine

 

_ “Will do Sabine, but watch out we heard a helicopter, we have no idea what heli it is though.” _

 

“No worries, we’ll be there in a few minutes.” said Sabine

 

Both Adrian and Sawyer were quite close to the base as they were just heading back to their camp after a quick supply run from the base, it turns out that Sabine had forgotten that there are four of them not only two as she only grabbed enough water for her and Aiden. The two rushed back into the compound as fast as they could but right before they entered the compound the helicopter that Sawyer was talking about had just landed at one of the helipads.

 

“Shit, the backup is here.” said Adrian under his breath

 

Suddenly another noise filled the air. Both former Marines looked up to see a missile emerge from behind the temple and it seemed that it was intercepting something.

 

“That a fucking Patriot missile!” exclaimed Sawyer “Where did that come from?! “

 

“I don’t know and I don’t want to know to be honest.” said Adrian. “Let’s just wait for Sabine and Aiden to get here.”

 

The Ghost Hawk slowly spooled down and Spectre 2-4 disembarked and quickly began assessing the situation. The first thing they saw were the bodies of fallen operatives dotted around the base.

 

“What group was stationed here?” asked Hera

 

“Group 30, it seems that whoever did this finished what you didn’t finish a couple of weeks ago.” said Johnson referring to Hera’s “accidental” slaughter of around three quarters of Group 30 after they had found her in the Sith temple, in her new body of course. 

 

“It seems so…” Hera said quietly. “Allan go to the command building, check the security recordings and figure out what’s the Patriot shooting at.” ordered Hera

 

Allan nodded and quickly headed towards the command building.

 

“Johnson, take James and make sure that this base is secure.” Hera continued

 

Both operatives nodded and proceeded to begin sweeping the base for any intruders. 

 

“What about us?” asked Amanda shyly 

 

“We will go into the temple, there's something I need to check out. “ said Hera 

 

\---

 

The Jedi shuttle was making its final approach when they were suddenly hit by the two PAC-2 missiles launched from Camp Fortitude. Luckily for the Jedi their shuttle was made of a strong alloy that somehow resisted the first hit, but they weren't as lucky for the second hit, the hit disabled their thrusters and hyperdrive, forcing them to glide to the ground. A large smoke trail emanated from the back of the shuttle, signalling the fact that something was definitely wrong. The smoke trail was so large that when it broke through the clouds the trail could have been seen all the way from Camp Cockrock, which was around five kilometres away from their current flight path. 

 

“We will have to land in the jungle! “ yelled Gavin as he wrestled with the controls of the shuttle to keep it from deviating from the flight path. “We are coming in fast, brace for impact! “

 

\---

 

Hera and Amanda entered the ancient Sith Temple. Amanda removed her helmet and placed it under her left arm. The temple seemed to have been upkept by the CTRG group stationed here as all the vines and overgrown flora that were there before when Hera was last there were removed. Opened boxes dotted the temple, their contents spread around the floor. Someone was definitely here and searched for something rather important as they went through the hassle of attacking a CTRG base. 

 

Hera’s radio crackled, signaling that someone was trying to reach her.

 

_ “The Patriot system is firing at an unidentified aircraft that flew in the restricted airspace over Tanoa.” _ said Allan

 

“Did the missiles hit?” asked Hera

 

_ “Both did and from what I can see here the aircraft is going down.” _

 

“Any idea where it will crash?”

 

_ “Around two hundred meters north west of the camp.” _

 

“Good work Allan, I’ll come by as soon as I’m done here.” said Hera   
  
“What are we doing here anyways?” asked Amanda

 

“I want to check on something…” said Hera

 

“What should I do?”

 

“Wait.” said Hera bluntly

 

Hera walked forwards, keeping her eyes trained on one specific thing in the entire room, a perfect rectangular shaped rock. To the outside observer it was just some random rock that probably fell from the roof of the temple but not to Hera, she knew full well what it was, the sarcophagus of Darth Terranis. Hera then closed her eyes, brought both her hands in front of her and began focusing on the sarcophagus with the Force. After a few a seconds the top of the sarcophagus began shifting, kicking up dust in the air that was millenia old. Hera then released the lid to the side and walked up to the open sarcophagus.

 

“God this dust is suffocating, I’ll wait outside.” said Amanda

 

Hera didn’t say anything instead she simply waved at Amanda with her back turned to her, signalling that she can go. She then approached the resting place of the long dead Sith Lord Darth Terranis, got up on the small podium where the sarcophagus was and looked inside. Hera’s eyes shot wide open when she saw the empty grave. The body was gone, how could that be? Last time she visited the temple she felt the presence of the corpse, but now that she opened the grave it was gone? Nothing could explain this, at least that’s what Hera thought.

 

“After learning all my teachings, still a fool.” said a feminine voice in a cold and calculated tone. “I should have left you to rot in that grave.”

 

“Who said that?!” demanded Hera as she turned around and ignited her lightsaber

Hera turned around to see a cloaked figure, it’s head covered by the hood it was wearing. She then slowly walked to the individual, her lightsaber ready to strike him down. When Hera was a few feet from the figure, the figure took of her hood off revealing, well, herself, the same green coloured skin, same head-tails and the only difference between the two aliens was the colour of their eyes, Hera’s were green while her “doppleganger” were golden . Her jaw dropped, she simply couldn’t fathom what she was seeing.

 

“Who are you?!” yelled Hera

 

“I’m Darth Terranis.” said the Sith

 

“Why do you look exactly like me?!”

 

“The question should be ‘Why do you look like me?’.” said Terranis

 

“What are you talking about?”

 

Terranis calmly walked past Hera and got up on the podium holding the sarcophagus.

 

“I am a mere force ghost…” said Terranis tracing her hand on her grave. “You have a bright destiny young one, to be a powerful Sith and to rule the Galaxy. You must not let your emotions get in the way of your destiny again! You have my body, my knowledge and my lightsaber. Now continue my legacy young one. Henceforth you shall be known as Darth Terranis, Lady of the Sith .” said the ghost as it vanished.

 

Hera still couldn’t understand what just happened, there was simply too much for her to comprehend. For a few good minutes Hera was in a state of disarray, she was still trying to process what just happened. She was brought out of this state by her radio going off.

 

_ “Hera do you copy?” asked Johnson _

 

“I do Johnson, is there a problem?”

 

_ “We’ve found some trespassers and you won’t believe who it is.” said Johnson estaticly _

 

“I’ll be on my way…” said Hera as she headed out the temple

 

As she was heading towards the command building, the Jedi shuttle skimmed the tall jungle trees surrounding the base. Making it deviate even more from its intended flight path, instead of going down somewhere in the northern part of the jungle it landed around fifty meters east from the base, crashing on the only access path to the base. 

 

Aiden and Sabine were walking up the jungle path when the shuttle came crashing down right in front of them. Both Jedi dived to each side of the path, managing to evade the wreck. Aiden then quickly realised what just happened: a Jedi shuttle just crashed right in front of them. 

 

“Sabine get up and help me find any survivors! “ ordered Aiden 

 

“No one can survive such a crash mom. “ said Sabine 

 

“That shuttle is meant to keep the people inside alive in case they crash. “ explained Aiden

 

The two Jedi rushed to the front of the crashed shuttle. Aiden quickly jumped on top of the cockpit and began cutting a hole in the wind shield of the shuttle with her lightsaber in a circular motion. In a matter of seconds Aiden managed to cut a man sized hole in the front of the shuttle. She then jumped down into the smouldering wreck of a shuttle and began looking around for the pilots. The first survivor that she saw was Gavin, he was still strapped to the pilot seat. He was knocked unconscious by the crash. Meanwhile his master, Jacen Upari was in the cargo hold, struggling to get back on his feet as he was knocked down by the force of the crash. Sabine picked up Gavin on her shoulders and took him out of the wreck, resting him on a tree nearby. Meanwhile Aiden went through the cockpit to find a button to open the door leading to the cargo hold. When she eventually opened the door she was met with a familiar face, that of Jedi Master Jacen Upari, an old friend of hers.

 

“Jacen…” whispered Aiden

 

“Selonna…”

The two elderly Jedi smiled at each other for a few seconds, after all it was two old friends meeting each other after four decades. Aiden was the first to end their short reunion as the shuttle began smoking harder. She quickly grabbed the survival kit from a drawer and helped Jacen out of the shuttle. Aiden then helped him walk to his Padawan, Gavin, who was slowly recovering from the crash.

 

“You’re Jedi?” asked Sabine

 

“Yes we are…” said Jacen. He then noticed the lightsaber clinging to Sabine’s belt.

 

“Are you Jedi?”

 

“Umm, long story.” replied Sabine

 

Jacen then turned to Aiden, or Selonna, waiting for an explanation. 

 

“She’s my daughter Jacen.” said Aiden. “I gave her my husbands’ lightsaber.”

 

“What happened to him? asked Jacen. As soon as he asked Aiden that he saw both mothers’ and daughters’ expressions change almost immediately, he asked something really sensitive of them perhaps.

 

“It’s complicated-” said Aiden as she was cut off by her daughter

 

“My sister killed him.” said Sabine. She was given a disappointed look by her mother almost immediately. “What? You told me to put her behind and I did. There’s no reason for them not to know.”

 

The Jedi master was surprised by the sincerity of Aiden’s daughter. He then again looked at Aiden, waiting for more explanation on how they got into that mess.

 

“I’ll tell you more after we get to our jungle camp, it’s too dangerous here.” said Aiden

 

“Before we head out, let me contact Sawyer to see if they are fine.” said Sabine

 

Aiden simply nodded, waiting for her daughter to get in contact with Sawyer. But something wasn’t right, she was only getting static. It came to her almost immediately, they were being jammed.

 

“I can’t raise them mom.” said Sabine. “What should we do?”

 

“We’ll do a quick detour around to the Sith temple to check on Sawyer and Adrian and bring them with us back to the camp.”

Both of the Jedi, Jacen and Gavin, were left speechless when they heard the casual manner they were talking about a Sith temple. Such a thing wouldn’t be allowed in the current Jedi Order.

 

“A Sith temple?” asked Jacen in total disbelief

 

“Yes, around one hundred meters down that path.” replied Sabine

 

“If it’s necessary to your friends’ well-being then I have no problem with it.” said Gavin as he got up, rubbing his head.

 

“Am I the only voice of reason here? It would be too dangerous to even get near a Sith temple, especially for a Padawan.” said Jacen

 

“How about we have a vote? Those in favor of going to the temple raise your hands.” said Sabine

 

Sabine rose her hand, shortly followed by Aiden. A few seconds passed before Gavin also rose his hand, which granted him an ugly look from his master. It was three to one, they were going to the Sith temple, the vote decided it.

 

“I love democracy.” said Sabine with a small chuckle

 

“We’ll go there, with one condition.” said Jacen. “My Padawan doesn’t come. It would be to much for him.”

 

Aiden nodded, accepting his terms. “Sabine, take his Padawan to the jungle camp.”

 

“Will do.” said Sabine


	4. Message Received - Part III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this took more than expected. It is quite long compared to my normal chapter size. At least there's only one part to go. Anyways have a good read.

**The Prejudice Venator-class Star Destroyer, Ansion System, Mid Rim**

 

The bridge of the Venator was bustling with navy officers, going back and forth between their respective stations passing along reports and sensor data. There was one man though standing out from the sea of clones dressed in the standard white uniform, a tall man dressed in a olive coloured uniform and on his chest a badge formed of three red squares on the top and two blue ones at the bottom. The man was Admiral Victor Randala, a young man with short brown hair and brown eyes. He was the youngest Admiral in the entire Republic Navy and at the same time respected by his older peers. One of the clone officers walked up to him with a datapad in his hand. He then proceeded to hand it to the Admiral.

 

“Sir, we’ve just gotten word from the rest of the fleet, they currently in hyperspace but they should be arriving within the standard hour.” explained the clone

 

“Good. What about General Upari and Commander Strax?” asked Victor

 

“We have lost contact with their shuttle transponder around two standard hours ago but we at least know where they were headed.”

 

“Plot a jump to the Solum system, send the coordinates to the rest of the fleet and we’ll jump as soon as they arrive.” ordered Victor

 

“Will do sir!” said the clone as he walked away from the Admiral

 

\---

 

**Camp Fortitude, Tanoa, Tanoan Archipelago**

 

The two elderly Jedi were almost at the main entrance when suddenly two loud bangs were heard, most likely gunshots. Shortly after a loud scream was heard. Aiden signaled to Jacen to keep quiet as they entered the base through the front. The two Jedi then approached the command building of the base, where they determined that the scream came from. Aiden the went up to one of the open windows and began listening in to the conversation happening inside.

 

“Tell me where they are Sawyer!” demanded Hera. “I’m not going to ask you again!”

 

Sawyer didn’t say anything, instead he turned his head to the right and spat out blood along with one of his teeth. “Unlike you, I don’t betray my brothers in arms!”

 

“Very well then.” said Hera calmly, slowly closing her palm. In fact she was crushing the bones in Sawyer's’ left leg using the Force.

 

Sawyer again let out a loud scream, he simply couldn’t restrain himself, the pain was too great for him to handle. Shortly after a nausening crack filled the room, Sawyer’s left leg was now crushed.

 

“I can’t watch anymore.” said Amanda almost throwing up.

 

“Go take a breath of fresh air dear, it’s normal.” said Hera softly

 

_ “Amanda?”  _ Aiden thought.  _ “What have you done Amanda?” _ . Aiden quickly motioned to Jacen to head around the corner as Amanda had just exited the building, heading to a small bench not that far away from the command building. Aiden watched around the corner as Amanda took of her helmet and placed it next to her and immediately threw up. She then broke down crying, she just couldn’t bare this anymore. 

 

“Why did I kill them?!” cried Amanda. “Why was I so stupid? ”

 

Aiden, seeing the turmoil that Amanda was in, immediately rushed to her side, crouching next to her in order to not be seen by the people inside. At first Amanda didn’t see Aiden as she was too distracted by her crying. Eventually Aiden placed her hand on her lap trying to reassure her and that’s when Amanda actually acknowledged her presence. Unfortunately she didn’t take it well as Aiden expected as Amanda swiftly drew her pistol, that was given to her by Hera as soon as they arrived at the base.

 

“Get away from me!” yelled Amanda. “Because of you my family is dead!” screamed Amanda, her blue eyes burning with hatred and fury 

 

“Amanda keep it quiet, we don’t want anyone else to hear us.” whispered Aiden

 

Amanda dropped her pistol. “I’m-I’m s-sorry…” said Amanda stuttering. She quickly broke down crying again and this time Aiden was quick to embrace her.

 

“What happened to Scott?” asked Aiden

 

“I-I k-killed him...He’s dead.” said Amanda

 

“Who made you do it?”

 

Amanda started shaking her head, trying to get those thoughts out of her head. Hera promised her that as long as she doesn’t betray her she’ll have everything she wants, a new life full of opportunities and a new family.

 

“I can’t tell you.”

 

“Why can’t you?” asked Aiden softly

 

“I’ll lose everything, I don’t want to lose a family again.”

 

“It’s fine Amanda, just tell me who it is and I’ll make sure you’ll have a proper family again.” said Amanda

 

After a few moments of hesitation Amanda finally opened up.

 

“It was Hera.”

 

“Wait, what?” asked Aiden in complete disbelief. “She's been dead for over an year now.”

 

“That’s what I thought as well…” said Amanda quietly as tears came to her eyes. “She’s back Aiden.”

 

“Then we need to leave immediately!” stated Aiden

 

“Already leaving Aiden?”

 

Aiden’s eyes shot wide open as soon as she saw the person standing at the door of the command building. She sadly knew too well who it was, her older daughter but she couldn’t really call Hera her daughter anymore as she wasn’t even human anymore.

 

“It can’t be!” yelled Aiden. “I saw your corpse!”

 

“Let’s just say I got a second chance.” said Hera coldly

 

Suddenly Hera’s squad popped up all around them, training their guns on Aiden and Jacen. Hera then looked over to Amanda who was standing behind Aiden and simply nodded. Without any hesitation Amanda swiftly picked up her handgun and aimed it at Aiden’s head. A wicked smile appeared on Hera’s face.

 

“You lost, again.” said Hera coldly as she slowly walked towards the two Jedi. “Tell me where Sabine is and I’ll make your death painless.”

 

The two Jedi didn’t say a word just gave Hera a disgusted look.

 

“I’ll never tell you anything.” said Amanda. “And you know that Hera.”

 

A small chuckle escaped Hera’s mouth. “Oh trust me I know Aiden, but I won’t pass on the opportunity to make you suffer.” 

 

“Who are you?” asked Jacen

 

“For your knowledge Master Jedi, I’m Darth Terranis, Dark Lady of the Sith, or Hera Syndulla, you can call me however you wish.”

 

“Sith…” Jaces hissed

 

“I’m going to ask you again, where is Sabine?” asked Hera. Without warning Hera swiftly grabbed Jacen with her right hand by the throat. “Or he dies.”

 

“I’m sorry Jacen, I just can’t tell her…” said Aiden

 

Jacen’s condition became worse by the second as the elderly Jedi was struggling for air. Aiden telepathically informed Jacen that she simply couldn’t tell Hera where Sabine was, it would be too dangerous and Jacen understood. He then closed his eyes and sent one last message to his Padawan learner to get Sabine as far away from there as could. He then waited in peace for his inevitable death.

 

“Very well then.” said Hera as she drew her crimson bladed lightsaber and drove the blade right through his heart. She then released the dead Jedi, his corpse collapsing on the ground. “Knock her out, we are taking her back to Tempest.”

 

Before anyone could get close to Aiden to knock her out she released a strong shockwave knocking everyone of off their feet, even Hera. With this opportunity Aiden dashed out of the base heading straight towards Sabine and Gavin. Hera was fuming, again she escaped from her grasp but she did manage to kill a Jedi. She was the first to get up and she walked over to the corpse of the Jedi. Hera than inspected his body until she found his lightsaber along with a small cylinder shaped object. Shortly after Amanda along with the rest Specter 2-4 got back up on their feet. Hera than walked over to Amanda, presenting her with the lightsaber of the fallen Jedi Master.

 

“Didn’t Aiden and Sabine though you the basics of lightsaber combat?” asked Hera

 

“Yeah, just the basics though.”

 

“Well it’s better than nothing.” said Hera as she handed Amanda the saber. “You’re probably better off with this that a gun.”

 

“Why do you think that?” asked Amanda

 

“The pistol wasn’t even loaded when you threatened Aiden with it.” said Hera drily

 

Amanda slapped her forehead, how could she be this forgetful? Such mistakes will get her killed. At the same time Amanda expected to feel and see disappointment in Hera’s look, but she didn’t instead her expression was warm all of the sudden as even her eyes turned back to their natural colour even though moments before her expression could only be described as demonic.

 

“The best way to learn is by making mistakes.” said Hera warmly. “Trust me I found that the hard way.”

 

“I’ll make sure that won’t happen again Hera.” replied Amanda shyly

 

“Good.” said Hera as she motioned to Johnson to come to her. “Get the bodies in the chopper and take them back to Cockrock, I’ll wait here with Amanda until you come back.”

 

“Are you sure Hera, what if they come back?” 

 

“Don’t worry Johnson I won’t die a second time.” said Hera in a jokingly tone

 

A nervous chuckle came from Johnson. “If you say so.” said Johnson as he motioned to Allan and James to start loading in the bodies.

 

“I’ll be inside the command centre, I need to get in contact with Miller.” said Hera as she turned around to head in the building. “You can come as well Amanda.”

 

The seventeen-year-old quickly followed Hera inside. Hera then walked over to a big screen behind one of the desks in the single story building and turned on a laptop that was on the desk. Pressing a few buttons the main screen lit up, there was a connection being made with Camp Tempest, she was just waiting for someone to answer. After a few minutes of waiting around someone did answer and to Hera’s delight it was Miller but something wasn’t right. The four-star General was catching his breath, it seemed he has been running across the entirety of the kilometre long base for at least ten times.

 

“What’s with the rush?” asked Hera

 

_ “I’m sorry Hera but the entire Federation Army is in full alert…” _ spat Miller as he tried to catch his breath.

 

“Why so?” inquired Hera

 

_ “Five, kilometer long space ships appeared out of nowhere right outside our atmosphere and one of them is already in the atmosphere heading straight towards Tanoa.” _

 

“What has the Federation High Command done so far?”

 

_ “Two squadrons of F-181s have been scrambled from a base in Australia and the Pacific Fleet has already been given orders to head to Tanoa.” _

 

“Are they planning a first strike?” asked Hera

 

_ “No, they already ruled out that option. They are planning to get in contact with the aliens.” _

 

“Inform Federation High Command that the CTRG already has men on the ground and they don’t need to send anyone.”

 

_ “You’re planning to talk to them aren’t you?” _

 

“You can read me so well Miller.” said Hera with a small smile.

 

_ “I’ll inform them, good luck.”  _ said Miller as the video call ended.

 

\---

 

**100 km from Tanoan Airspace, South Pacific Ocean**

 

The two F-181 Black Wasp Squadrons each with thirteen fighters each were nearing the Tanoan airspace. They were ordered not to engage unless engaged but the pilots were on edge, after all they were dealing with unknown contacts. Within a few more minutes they were around fifty kilometers from Tanoa when their radars flared up.

 

“Two contacts, fifty clicks out.”

 

“Copy Raven-3. All Raven callsigns assume V formation, arm missiles and only fire on my order.”

 

“Copy Raven Leader.” all the pilots within Raven Squadron said in unison

 

“Raven Leader, this is Hawk Leader, be advised: My squadron will stay at a ten kilometer loiter around Tanoa, we’ll leave you with the UFOs.”

 

“Copy Hawk Leader, fly safe.”

 

Hawk Squadron quickly banked right breaking off from Raven Squadron.

 

\---

 

**The Prejudice Venator-class Star Destroyer, Tanoa, Tanoan Archipelago**

 

Feet pounded the hallways of the Star Destroyer as clone troopers traversed the ship to the main hangar of the Venator where they were to embark on Low Altitude Assault Transports or LAATs in order to reach the planet surface and search for the missing Jedi General and Commander. Meanwhile on the bridge Admiral Randala was requesting sensor updates every five minutes, even for the clone officers it became annoying as there was nothing anywhere close to them but eventually around ten minutes later their sensor flared up.

 

“Twentysix bogeys inbound, fifty clicks out!” reported a clone officer

 

“Ready the batteries and send in the LAATs.” ordered Victor

 

“Sir, yes sir!” said two naval officers simultaneously

 

“Bogeys are twenty clicks out!” reported the first clone officer

 

“Do we have confirmation on what we are facing?” asked Victor

 

“No sir, the models don’t match any of our records. Should I scramble the fighters?”

 

“No need, let’s wait on their first move.”

 

Shortly after three LAATs each with a squad of clone troopers left the Venator hangar bay, heading straight towards the island of Tanoa. 

 

Back at Camp Fortitude the Ghost Hawk carrying the bodies of the operatives that were stationed there along with the corpse of Jedi Master Jacen Upari and Spartan 2-4 had just taken off and headed towards Camp Cockrock. Meanwhile Hera and Amanda remained at the camp, waiting to make contact with the “aliens”. Hera was sitting at a desk inspecting the cylinder shaped item she took off of Jacen while Amanda was pacing around the room, pondering on what Aiden told her. 

 

Hera let out a deep sigh, she found out what Amanda was thinking about. “You’re thinking about what Aiden said, don’t you?”

 

“Yes I am…” said Amanda shyly. “It’s just I don’t understand why she hates you so much, you’re not that bad.”

 

“I appreciate that you think that about me Amanda, it means a lot.” said Hera with a small smile

 

\---

 

“Sir, we have managed to locate General Upari’s ComLink!” said a clone officer

 

“Excellent work, send the coordinates to the LAATs.” ordered Victor. “What is the status on the bogeys-” 

 

Victor was cut off by the Black Wasps that had just flown past his bridge, one after another until all twelve thirteen flew past. Raven Squadron quickly came back around, going back into a V formation but this time the squadron split in half, six fighters on each side of the Venator with Raven Leader flying right in front of the ship, maintaining the same speed with the Venator to avoid crashing.

 

“They are trying to escort us.” whispered Victor. “Maintain current speed, don’t engage the bogeys and they must have a way to communicate, I need it to be found ASAP.” ordered Victor

 

“Sir, yes sir!”

 

\---

 

Sabine was sitting next to the now burnt out campfire along with Gavin, hugging her knees, waiting for her mother to return when Gavin suddenly got up, his hand reaching for his heart.

 

“Are you alright Gavin?” asked Sabine

 

The wave of emotions hit him like a wildfire. His eyes quickly watered as soon as he realised what his master sent him: a goodbye and a last request.

 

“My master is dead…”

 

“Impossible, my mother would never let him die.” stated Sabine

 

Gavin’s Jedi training kicked in, he quickly suppressed his feelings as they are the way to the dark side. He then glanced at Sabine remembering what his master wanted him to do regarding her.

 

“He told me to get you as far away from here as I can.” said Gavin. He quickly reached for Sabine’s hand but she pulled back her hand before he could grab it.

 

“I’m not leaving without my mother, she’s still alive, I can feel her.”

 

Gavin let out a deep sigh. “Fine, we’ll wait for her.”

 

The two Jedi didn’t have to wait for long until Aiden showed up. She dashed through the thick jungle, jumping over what she could, cutting through anything else with her lightsaber. She was in such a hurry that she didn’t even realise that she had arrived at the camp, bumping into Sabine as a result. As soon as Sabine could lay her eyes on her mother she could see that something was wrong, she was shaken to the core to whatever happened in that Sith temple.

 

“What happened?” asked Sabine

 

“It’s bad. It’s really bad.”

 

Before Sabine could’ve have asked anything else, the three LAATs that took of from the  _ Prejudice _ flew right past them, heading towards Camp Fortitude. Gavin’s face lit up as he saw the Republic gunships, finally a rescue arrived.

 

“The Republic’s here! We’re saved!” said Gavin joyfully

 

“They’re heading towards a Sith.” said Aiden

 

“What?” both Sabine and Gavin asked in unison

 

“She’s back…”

 

Sabine quickly realised who her mother was referring to but her expression didn’t change, it stayed serious and determined. At the same time she looked in the Force, looking for any traces of her sisters’ presence. There was nothing but utter darkness.

 

“Hera is not back.” stated Sabine. “The Sith that killed my sister is back.”

 

“I need to contact the troopers!” said Gavin as he pressed a button on his wrist band, causing the device to let out a few sparks before a small pillar of black smoke emerged from the device. “Blast! It must have been damaged when we crash landed.”

 

“Any plans?” asked Aiden

 

“We can’t go back to the CTRG base, we need to get out of this jungle.” said Sabine

 

“What about the Republic, if we get in contact with them then we can get reinforcements and we can destroy the Sith.” suggested Gavin

 

“You don’t know what Sith you are dealing with. She has control of all military forces on this planet. That’s over ten million soldiers. Do you really think we can fight that? “ said Sabine grimly 

 

“Do you have any better ideas? “ asked Gavin

 

“Let's just leave the jungle, find a way out of Tanoa and pray to God that she doesn't find us. “ said Aiden 

 

“Fine, I'll follow your plan. “ said Gavin

 

\---

 

The LAATs had just arrived at Camp Fortitude. They slowly lowered themselves into the main clearing within the base, a clearing that was used as a helipad for the base. Within seconds of landing the doors of the gunships opened. Hera counted around twenty soldiers, all wearing white armour with jet black markings. The soldiers quickly began clearing the buildings in the base, slowly reaching the command building where Hera and Amanda were. Hera grabbed an empty backpack and threw her lightsaber inside along with Jacen’s lightsaber and comlink. She then placed it by her chair, then sat calmly waiting for the soldiers to enter. 

 

“How can you be this calm?” asked Amanda

 

“Leading a world war on the front lines kinda gets the fear out of you.” replied Hera bluntly

 

As expected shortly after their conversation three troopers burst into the building and almost instantaneously training their blasters at the two. While Amanda didn’t dare to move an inch Hera calmly typed away at the laptop on the desk that she was sitting at. A trooper got a closer, around half a meter from her and pointed his blaster right at her head.

 

“Get up now!” ordered the trooper

 

Hera complied. She gently got up, not making any sudden moves so the trooper had no reason to shoot her, then gestured at the backpack to let the soldier know that she was going to pick it up. The soldier nodded, leading Hera to pick up her backpack and carefully headed out the building. Outside she was met by Amanda, she was lined up against the wall of the command building, Hera was also gestured by a trooper to go next to the girl.

 

“My commander will come and speak with you.” said the trooper

 

In no more than a minute another trooper showed up in front of the duo, same armour with the same black markings, but had two striking differences from the rest, the soldier were an upswept black pauldron and a lighting bolt painted on the chestplate of the armour.

 

“I am Captain Bolt, designation CT-3729. “ said the officer. “Who are you?” inquired the Captain

 

“I am General Hera Syndulla of the Combat Technology Research Group...” said Hera proudly. “And this is…my daughter.” 

 

Amanda immediately turned her head to Hera. She was met by a genuine motherly smile and she was quick to return a small smile. Although the two couldn’t see, the trooper smiled as well under his helmet, for the seasoned clone Captain it was his first time seeing a happy family.

 

“So, General Syndulla, I guess you’re the one running the things around here…” implied Bolt

 

“I run the entire planet Captain.” said Hera with a small chuckle. “What would you like to know?”

 

“Our General and Commander went missing right after they had arrived here.” 

 

“And I presume you want me to check out if we know anything about those two.”

 

“That’s exactly what I want General.”

 

“May I know their names?” asked Hera

 

“Jedi General Jacen Upari and Jedi Commander Gavin Strax.” the Captain replied

 

_ “The Jedi…”  _ Hera thought. Hera’s disgust spiked as soon as she heard about the Jedi, she had enough of them anyways and wanted to just go berserk on the Republic troopers but she then remembered one thing that the ghost that had just fully initiated her in the Sith order a mere fifty minutes before had told her:  _ “You must not let your emotions get in the way of your destiny again!” _ . With those words Hera quickly calmed herself down and reached in her backpack to pull out Master Upari’s lightsaber along with his comlink. She then presented them to the Captain.

 

“Where did you find them?” asked the Captain, a tad of fear could be heard in his tone.

 

“He gave them to me, right before he died…” said Hera with a faked regretful tone. “They were shot down by the anti-air systems on the island, when we got to the crash site they were fine, but what ensued was what got both of them killed.”

 

“Please, tell me what happened.” said the officer, the sternness present in his voice was gone.

 

“Obviously we weren’t the only ones that noticed that an alien craft crashed on this island. Around ten minutes after we arrived around twenty insurgents swarmed the crash site. We were only eight people, the General and Commander fought bravely, but only me, my daughter, along with three others survived.” Hera finished explaining

 

The Captain took off his helmet, revealing a human face, something that was quite puzzling for Amanda and Hera. His expression was stern, cold and calculated, the expression that a soldier would have, but Hera could feel his sorrow and regret. Hera mentally smiled, her rouse worked.

 

“Do you know where their bodies are?”

 

“They were taken by the insurgents, probably burnt by now.” said Hera. “I’m sorry.” said Hera softly

 

“It’s alright General, you did all you could. “ said the Captain as he put his helmet back on. “The Admiral requested to find someone in command of the military forces of this planet in order to establish communications with the Republic. “ 

 

“Well you found me.”

 

“I did indeed General, are you willing to come to the  _ Prejudice _ ?” asked Bolt

 

“What is the  _ Prejudice _ ?” asked Hera

 

Before Captain Bolt could answer the  _ Prejudice  _ itself flew over the base, filling the air with the humming sound of its engines along with the jet engines of the F-181s escorting it. Hera along with Amanda were nothing short of dumbfounded when they saw the scale of the ship, it was simply unfathomable for them.

 

“That’s the  _ Prejudice _ . “ replied Bolt. “So, are you coming General? “

 

“Definitely, I really want to meet this Admiral now.” said Hera

 

“Well then, follow me.” said Bolt as he started walking towards one of the LAATs. He was quickly followed by Hera and Amanda. The three embarked the gunship along with a few other clones as soon as Captain Bolt ordered everyone to get back into their respective LAATs. Within half a minute the gunships took off, heading straight towards the Venator. The flight to the ship was short as it was right above them. The gunships quickly landed in the main hangar of the Star Destroyer, the doors opened and the troops disembarked. 

 

“Alright boys, you did well, time for some R&R! “ said Bolt. “Dismissed! “

 

“I couldn't help but notice that every single person on the transport had the same voice. “ said Hera 

 

“You aren't wrong General, we're all clones. “

 

“This Republic must be quite advanced then. “ remarked Hera. “Tell me, when can I meet this Admiral?” asked Hera

 

“He is on the bridge, I’ll take you to his office where you can wait for him.” said Bolt. “Follow me.”

 

The trio quickly left the enormous hangar of the Venator and headed down a series of well lit and extremely clean white hallways. Amanda was quick to compare these hallways to something that you would see in a normal hospital. They then went higher within the ship with a really fast elevator that was apparently called a  _ turbolift,  _ they then walked down the last hospital-like hallway and at the end there was a door with a plaque on it, placed at head level, it was inscribed in some sort of alien language, that neither Hera or Amanda understood. The door slid open as soon as Bolt pressed a button on the right side of the door. He then gestured the two to head inside.

 

“The Admiral will be with you shortly, in the meantime you can take a seat in those chairs over by his desk.” said Bolt as the door closed leaving the two in the office.

 

Amanda placed her helmet on the desk and sat down in a chair opposite to the desk. She then unclipped her canteen from her belt and bagan drinking some water. Hera instead began pacing around the office, trying to figure out what was she going to do next.

 

“Hera?” asked Amanda quietly

 

Hera stopped her pace around the office and turned around to face Amanda. “Yes Amada?”

 

“When you told the Captain that I am your daughter…” Amanda paused. “Did you really mean it?”

 

Hera let out a small sigh. She quickly walked over to Amanda, placing her hands on her shoulders causing both of them looked straight at each other. “Of course you are, you are my adopted daughter. “ said Hera warmly. “I promised that I’ll take care of you no matter of what happens.”

 

A small smile appeared on Amanda’s face. She could barely hold back her tears. It was a lot for her to know that she finally has someone that actually cares for her even if the person that cares for her is a crazy bloodthirsty genocidal maniac.

 

“What are you planning?” asked Amanda

 

“I don’t know yet Amanda.” replied Hera

 

Hera began pacing around the room again, having nothing better to do until the Admiral was available. The office itself was quite silent, the only sound that could be heard was Hera’s boots pounding the floor but even that wasn’t like anything they’ve heard while they were walking there. Eventually after a few more minutes of silence Amanda was first to break the silence. 

“Why did you trust me with your secret?”

 

Hera let out a small chuckle. “Because you remind me of myself...” said Hera. “I wanted for you to have a rich future, you deserved better but your father would have none of it.”

 

“Why so?” asked Amanda

 

“Because he knew of my powers as well but only after I tossed his mole in the CTRG around like a ragdoll for ten minutes straight.” Hera started explaining. “He wanted to get me killed because for him I was a enormous threat to his plans.”

 

“So why did he invite you three times to our country house?”

 

“Because he wanted to appear like he had no intentions in killing me.” replied Hera. “Quite foolish of him to be honest.” Hera scoffed

 

“But why didn’t you just kill him when you had the chance? Why wait six years?” inquired

 

“Because a Captain killing a prominent four star General didn’t look so good.” said Hera. “The CTRG had suspicions about his activities even before I joined. I just helped find the most incriminating evidence against him and for that I got given the CTRG.”

 

“You had one hell of a life.”

 

“I did and I still do after all I’m only twenty-eight, I got a long life ahead.” said Hera smiling

 

The door of the office slid open, a tall man in an olive uniform, dark brown hair and brown eyes came through. Seeing the two women sitting by his desk he quickly straightened his uniform and adjusted his collar. He then slowly walked to the two to greet them.

 

“I am Admiral Victor Randala of the Republic Navy.” stated the Admiral

 

Hera lent her hand forward waiting for a handshake from the Admiral. Victor was rather stunned at this display seeing that she didn’t expect a kiss on her hand or anything elegant like that.

 

“I’m not some sort of pompous royal Admiral, I’m just an officer like you.” said Hera respectfully

 

The Admiral quickly followed up with a handshake and something else surprised lhim. Hera had one hell of a grip, hell even stronger than Randala’s and she wasn’t even that muscular. Of course it was because of her powers that her grip was augmented to such a degree but Victor didn’t know that.

 

“I am General Hera Syndulla of the Combat Technology Research Group. A pleasure to meet you Admiral.”

 

“And that must be your daughter.”

 

“Yes indeed, I hope that bringing her with me doesn’t cause any troubles.”

 

“It certainly doesn’t. Now I presume that Captain Bolt informed you why you are here.”

 

“He did and I am ready to begin open communications with the Republic. “

 

“Let's begin then. First matter: What are your thoughts about a Republic garrison somewhere on this planet as currently we are engaged in a fierce galactic war. “

 

Hera didn’t hesitate for a second with her response. “An excellent suggestion Admiral and I have just the place for it. Camp Tempest, it’s half empty and it could easily accomodate a few thousand troops.“ said Hera. It would be perfect she thought, as long as there aren’t any Jedi around.

 

The Admiral pressed a few buttons on his desk and the office darkened. Shortly after a hologram of planet Earth showed up, filling the office in a blue light. “Where would that be?”

 

Hera inspected the hologram, it was something that she never saw but it didn’t take long for her to find the exact location of Camp Tempest as it was only sixty kilometers away from Washington D.C. With her index finger she touched the location of the base. A red circle appeared marking the position.

 

“It should be around there.” 

 

“Very well.” said Victor as he pressed another button on his desk. “I am sending some coordinates, proceed to the location immediately.”

 

_ “Sir, yes sir!” _


	5. Message Received - Part IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again this took more than expected, for the past week I have been dealing with a nasty case of tonsillitis and also I have been getting back into playing SWTOR, so yeah. Also this is way shorter as I had realised a bit to late that I didn't really need a Part IV to this chapter. Anyways have a good read

**Two hours later**

**Camp Tempest, Maryland, North American Sector**

 

For the past two hours the Venator traversed around twelve thousand kilometers over the Pacific Ocean and mainland America. Under Hera’s advice, Admiral Randala kept the ship under a thousand meters so the fighters could keep up, or that’s what Hera told him. All of that was on purpose, it was her strategy to try to get the people on the Republic’s side without any conflict. Meanwhile, for the average folk it was nothing short of terrifying. The simple magnitude of the ship was stunning to anyone that saw it. Crowds gathered in the cities it passed over, some were petrified at the sight of the wedge shaped ship others were curious about who created such a vessel. Was it some sort of secret Federation project or was it an extraterrestrial visitor? At the end of the trip the Venator arrived at its destination, Camp Tempest. Two four-star Generals were just leaving the command building when the Venator arrived over the base. The two Generals were Scott Miller and Jeffrey Smith, Hera’s aids during her time as the six-star Grand General of the Human Federation. Both stared at the giant ship, somehow they knew that Hera was behind that. Their suspicions were confirmed when a LAAT gunship left the hangar of the ship and landed shortly after on one of the helipads outside the building. The two officers then walked over to the helipads and as soon as they got a few meters away from the gunship its slide doors slid open. One by one Hera, Amanda along with Admiral Randala disembarked the LAAT. Both Miller and Jeffrey laid their sight on the Admiral, he was human but they couldn’t recognize his uniform from any of the branches of the Federation military. It quickly hit them that he must be the commander of the giant ship hovering above or some sort of representative of the faction whose the spaceships belonged to. In a sign of respect, Admiral Randala was the first to salute the officers, the two followed suit. 

 

Hera stepped up. “You two, in my office now.” ordered Hera.

 

“Hera we are on a schedule, we need to be at Federation High Command...”

 

“I don’t care Miller, establishing contact with a galactic spanning civilisation is more important.”

 

Miller let out a deep sigh. “I’ll inform the Council that we won’t be able to make it.” The two then turned around and headed back into the building. Hera then turned around to the Admiral. 

 

“I’ll have a quick talk with my aids about this situation, my daughter will take you to the briefing room if that’s alright with you Admiral.”

 

“Everything is alright General.” Victor assured Hera.

 

“Amazing, now if you may excuse me, I need to get to my aids.” said Hera as she turned around on her heels, putting her hands behind her back and began walking towards the building, her tentacle-like appendages were swaying right and left as she walked. 

 

Admiral Randala turned around to Amanda as soon as Hera was out of sight. “Lead the way miss.”

 

\---

 

**Bala Airstrip, Tanoa, Tanoan Archipelago**

Aiden, Sabine and Gavin have been walking for at least two hours now through the extremely humid and hot tropical climate, they were even forced to swim for a good half an hour as they didn’t have the means of getting a boat to traverse the gap between islands. They had finally arrived at their destination: an old, forgotten airstrip that was used by smugglers. At the end of the strip stood an old Cessna, somewhat still flyable. The trio walked over to the old plane. Aiden then opened one of the doors of the plane and began inspecting its systems for any malfunctions.

 

“I still can’t believe that this bucket of bolts can still fly. ” said Sabine

 

“It held up for eighteen years, let’s hope it will hold for another eighteen.” Aiden said dryly

 

“Isn’t it too dangerous to fly in  _ this  _ when there are war planes flying about?” asked Gavin

 

“They won’t shoot down civilian aircraft…” said Aiden

 

“Unless they are ordered to or they figure out who owns it.” finished Sabine

 

“You’re wanted?” asked Gavin

 

“Yes Gavin, we are.” said Aiden

 

“Great, not only that my master is dead but I’m also stuck with criminals.” scoffed Gavin

 

“We’re not criminals Gavin, do you remember what I told you?” asked Sabine

 

“Right, your sister…”

 

Suddenly the engine of the Cessna started, the rotor blades began spinning. The sound of the engine was nothing short of deafening with the out-of-place bursts of the engine, the plane itself was quite old and the engine showed the signs of extensive usage and little maintenance but it was flyable. 

 

“Come on kids, get in!” exclaimed Aiden as she lent out a hand to the two first helping Sabine and then Gavin in the plane.

 

Aiden then sat in the pilot seat and put on a pair of old headphones, she adjusted the microphone it and then handed two more pairs to Gavin and Sabine, they then proceeded to put them on as well after they had fastened themselves into their seats. The three then did a quick check to see if the headphones were still working and to their relief they were. Aiden flipped a few switches, pressed a few buttons and before you knew it the old plane began moving, slowly taking speed and within the minute it took off. Aiden quickly adjusted her flight path for Australia.

 

\---

 

**Camp Tempest, Maryland, North American Sector**

 

“With all due respect Hera but your choice of bringing this  _ Admiral  _ here along with his ship and then also offering this base to be a garrison for whatever  _ Republic  _ he’s part of without even consulting us is complete madness!” exclaimed Miller

 

“He’s right, how are we meant to explain this to Federation High Command or the President?” said Smith

 

While the two Generals tried arguing with Hera she seemed not to care, she turned her back to them as soon as she got behind her desk and stared out of her wall sized window behind her desk at the Venator hovering no more that half a kilometer above the base. Miller eventually got quite annoyed at her supposed careless about the gravity of this situation and to the fact that they have more of a personal relationship he was the first to try to confront her.

 

“Are you even listening?!” asked Miller furiously. “Do you not understand how fucked we are if High Command sends someone to figure out why there is a kilometer long ship above the base?!”

 

Hera’s anger spiked, something that both Smith and Miller is not good. “Enough! Do you not remember who’s in charge around here?!” said Hera as she turned around to face Miller, getting really close to him in the process. 

 

Miller who was sitting on chair until then stood up to face his unofficial superior. That of course angered Hera, he again stepped over the line and that was no good. “What happened to you?” Miller asked quietly. “You’re not the same.”

 

“I’m glad I’m not because if I would be, I would be dead by now!” 

 

“Then I can’t be here any longer.” stated Miller. “I am the aid of Grand General Hera Syndulla, a passionate person and a true leader that cares about his own men. Unfortunately she died a year ago when she was assasinated.”

 

Hera closed her eyes, a small tear escaped the confines of her closed right eye that then went down her cheek. She quickly reopened her eyes, now burning bright yellow. With a quick motion of her hands Miller was thrown across the room into a bookshelf next to the door of the office. Hera pulled her lightsaber and ignited it before lunging at Miller’s neck holding it to his neck. For a second Miller didn’t break eye contact with his lover. He was full of sorrow and regret, he felt defeated seeing that Hera attacked him when he stood up to her. This wasn’t the Hera he knew anymore, this was Darth Terranis, a Lady of the Sith.

 

“The only reason why you’re not dead yet is because I still care about you!”

 

“I’d better be dead than having to see Hera being murdered and replaced by a monster.”

 

She growled at Miller’s statement and approached her blade even closer to his throat, millimeters away from cutting into it. She pulled herself back moments before she would end his life right then and there. Hera then stared down at the General in disgust.

 

“Get out of my office and if I see you ever again, I’ll make sure you have a slow and painful death.”

 

Miller struggled back onto his feet and straightened his uniform. He then went over to the desk and took his officer cap, put it back on his head and picked up his briefcase. Miller quickly headed out the office not looking back for a second. His career in the CTRG and Federation Army may be over but he swore to himself that he would avenge his lover no matter the cost. Luckily for him, he had some information that he didn’t get to pass over to Hera: the locations of the all the safehouses that belonged to the late General George Scott.    

 

As he was leaving the base in his personal car, he pulled out a satellite phone out of a glove compartment and started dialing a number. He held the phone to his ear with one hand and proceeded to drive with the other. The phone began ringing and shortly after a short beep was heard, the person on the other side picked up.

 

“We need to talk.” said Miller

 

_ “Is it about her?” _

 

“Yes Schmidt it is.”

 

_ “Come to safe house Omega, I’ll meet you there.” _

 

“See you there.” said Miller as he hung up

 

\---

 

Hera turned around to Smith as soon as she broke visual contact with Miller, her fiery glare now upon him.

 

“Get whatever’s left of the CTRG up to speed with the current situation and arrange a meeting with the Federation High Command as I need to remind them who’s in charge. Any questions?”

 

Smith got up from his chair completely petrified. He simply nodded no, not uttering any words.

 

“Good, dismissed.” said Hera

 

Smith then headed towards the door, opened it, but before he could leave Hera called for him once more. He went stiff as he slowly turned around to face the green skinned alien, her yellow eyes plunging deep within his soul. “One last thing, tear down the statue of me outside the base, I don’t think we want our new friends to figure out what’s going on here.”

 

He nodded in approval and proceeded to leave her office. 

 

\---

 

The briefing room was quite silent as the only sound that could be heard was the sound of Amanda’s boots pacing around the room. She was getting a quite nervous for the apparent reason that she is in a room with a human Admiral that wasn’t even from Earth meanwhile Admiral Randala was quite calm, it seemed like it’s just another standard assignment. Eventually, seeing Amanda’s current state Victor quickly decided it would be a good idea to talk to the girl.

 

“Why are you so nervous Amanda?” inquired Victor. “Is it okay if I call you Amanda?”

 

She nodded in approval but she didn’t respond to his first question.

 

“There’s no need to be afraid of me, I’m not the enemy here.” said Victor softly

 

“I know Admiral, it’s just that my entire life I was taught that we were the only sentient species and that humans originated from this planet millions of years ago and then within three hours all of that was undone. I simply can’t understand how we didn’t find this out earlier.”

 

“The only sentient species? Obviously you haven't seen your own adoptive mother, she's no human, she's a Twi’lek. Quite the beautiful species might I add. “

 

“She doesn't know her species, she had no family, she just appeared one day on this planet twenty years ago and was picked up and raised by the CTRG in secret. “ explained Amanda. 

 

“Quite a tragic background, I can't imagine what she went through. “ said Victor. “But from her accomplishments, or at least the ones she told me about, your stepmother must be an extremely talented leader. She's probably on par with a Jedi. “

 

_ “Damn right she is, she killed one in front of me. “ _

 

“I can’t help but wonder what happened to your parents, you’re of such young age and you are serving in the military?”

 

“My parents-” said Amanda before being cut off by Hera’s entrance

 

“Her parents were found guilty of treason and were executed.” said Hera coldly. “Now if we may begin these  _ negotiations  _ already as I have a meeting with the heads of the Federation in a few hours.”

 

“Have a seat General and we may begin.”


	6. An Unexpected Alliance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quite the long wait for this one. Had a bunch of exams that held me back from writing but here it is: Chapter 3. A bunch of gruesome stuff in this one, let's hope it's not too much. Anyways enough rambling, have a good read!

**3 hours later**

**Safe House Omega, North American Sector**

 

Miller drove up to what seemed like an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. It would be the perfect place to hide, no outside connections and no civilisation for miles but that was what General Scott also thought when he hid away after he assassinated the most powerful person on Earth at that time and of course it didn’t work out for him. Something that Miller knew as soon as he left Camp Tempest and the CTRG for good is that he would be on the run for the rest of his life, he knows first hand what happens to people that “betray” her: they die, slowly and painfully. Fortunately for him he had an old friend to call upon, the person that was in charge of the CTRG before he handed it over to Hera: Adam Schmidt. Schmidt was a controversial figure to say the least, especially within NATO’s top brass. Most of the heat that he got before his retirement was mostly about Hera and how quickly she went up the ranks. He took her under his wing almost immediately after she was deployed on Altis in 2028 due to her amazing, almost superhuman skills that she presented during Basic Training in the US Marines. Schmidt took her into the CTRG, trained her to become a killing machine, to show no mercy to anyone, not even civilians and consequently made her fall into darkness. He later came to regret his decisions after Hera started a World War, causing the deaths of millions and that scorched the lands of many nations for decades. One thing that he did admit to praise about Hera’s plan at world domination was that somehow during the entire war not a single nuclear weapon was used. That though, doesn’t mean that any weapons of mass destruction weren’t used. For example, the worst natural disasters that happened in the history of man happened in Indonesia, a country that was part of CSAT. During The Third World War several tsunamis and high magnitude earthquakes hit the island nation causing around eight million casualties and millions of dollars in property damage. This was all because of a stolen CSAT prototype WMD dubbed the East Wind Device that was ironically stolen by Hera and her team on Altis back in 29’. Not to even mention the amount of war crimes that Hera directly committed, the hundreds of bombing sorties directly targeted at densely populated cities that she had ordered. She also ordered the worst bombing campaigns during the war was upon Moscow, the war had been already going for half a year and the Russian air force was nothing short of obliterated by then. The bombing raids began on 13th of February 2034 and ended on the 15th reducing the capital to ruins and killing over a million people. Somewhat ironically is that the bombing of Moscow almost completely resembled the bombing of Dresden done by the Allies during The Second World War, even the dates when it began and ended synced up with the Dresden bombings. Of course this was all because of Hera’s plan to completely break the morale of the enemy. Her plan eventually succeeded half a year later. With the fall of Moscow and the Middle East and also with NATO forces pushing deep into India from Iran and China from the Korean Peninsula along with the continuous bombing of not only civilians but also infrastructure and military complexes CSAT entered a cease-fire with NATO on New Year’s Eve 2034 and then after two months of “intense” debate, CSAT officials from the three major countries within the alliance: Russia, China and Iran signed the Tokyo Accord on February 21st 2035, basically annexing all CSAT states into the recently declared Human Federation. It was the perfect birthday gift for the newly promoted Grand General of the Human Federation.The victory was short lived for the Grand General though as barely a week later she was assassinated by her old nemesis George Scott in her own bedroom. Miller was actually the one to find her corpse, his entire world collapsed around him but he learned to move on, to continue her legacy. He vowed to himself to avenge her no matter what but then she came back, albeit different so to say, a small glimmer of hope appeared for him that maybe the woman that he had loved came back but he was gravely mistaken. His objective was again clear: to avenge his lost love. Miller came up to the door of the old house and knocked on it. A minute passes and the door opens. Miller is met with a familiar face, Adam Schmidt. The face of the retired General was stern, he definitely didn’t like the current situation.

 

“Get in quickly.” said Adam

 

Miller followed Adam into the house and in a small room that acted as a dining room and a kitchen for the house. In the middle sat an old wooden table with three chairs around it. Adam proceeded to sit in one of the chairs, Miller quickly followed. Adam sighed.

 

“What have you done?” he asked bluntly

 

“I stood up to her, she then threw me into the wall and almost cut my head off.” explained Miller

 

“And I guess she didn’t.” said Adam dryly

 

“She told me that if she sees me again I’ll have a slow and painful death.” 

 

“You know that basically means that you are now a traitor right?” asked Adam

 

“Of course I do, that’s why I called you.”

 

“To associate me with you so I can die as well?”

 

“I want to avenge her Schmidt. I want to avenge Hera.” said Miller

 

“You can’t avenge someone that is not dead Miller. She’s not dead, even I know the DNA tests came back positive, that’s Hera and you know it.” said Adam

 

“That thing is not Hera, it’s some sort of devil that killed her took her place.”

 

“That’s the same thing you said when you first saw her in physcopath mode.” said Adam. “I still remember your face when you saw her yellow eyes for the first time.” said Adam holding back a laugh

 

Miller frowned at Adam’s careless attitude. “I mean it Adam, we need to do something.” said Miller in a serious tone

 

Adam now seeing that Miller was not actually joking, he actually meant it, Adam could see it in his expression. Schmidt’s face went stern again as he began to asses the situation. He began rubbing his growing beard as he continued on thinking about the possible plans that could ensure their survival. His thinking was interrupted by the sound of someone knocking on the front door of the house. Miller got up from his chair, pulled out his handgun and went up to the door waiting for the person that was knocking to come in. He opened the door and stood by its side. Someone walked in, a man, maybe fifty years old, brown hair with signs of aging walked in. Miller than revealed himself to the person by pointing his pistol at the back of the person’s head. The person slowly turned around, his face now revealed to Miller, his eyes went wide and he gasped as soon as he identified the man. The person was A.J. Dutton, a CTRG Major that was accused of spying for CSAT and personally caught by Hera when she was only a Lieutenant. He reportedly died in 2030 after he was interrogated for his connections with CSAT. 

 

“Dutton?! “ 

 

“Put the gun down Miller, I'm here to help. “ said Dutton calmly 

 

“How are you still alive?!”

 

“The General didn’t kill me after the interrogation, he let me go after I showed him proof that Hera fabricated evidence against me.”

 

Miller holstered his handgun before running back into the kitchen to confront Schmidt about Dutton. He was pissed off at the fact that the General let him go and not even tell him about it.

 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Miller asked

 

“I figured since she was your second-in-command and you spent a lot of time together it would be better for you not to know. For your own safety.” Adam explained

 

“My own safety?”

 

“She can read minds for God's sake!” said Adam, raising his tone. “She would have found out about it the second you knew it and if that would have happened God knows what she would have done.” Adam then deeply sighed. “I shouldn’t have pushed her, this is all my fault.”

 

“What are you talking about?” asked Miller

 

Before Adam could explain what he was on about Dutton entered the room, resting his coat on the free chair. He then leaned on a wall next to the table, crossing his arms.

 

“When we first brought her in I gave her a mission to retrieve a local informant from Oreokastro on Altis back in 28’” Adam began explaining. “It was an easy go in, get the guy and get out mission or at least I thought so.”

 

“What happened?” Miller asked

 

“Better buckle in, what happened in that town was something else.” Adam warned

 

**It was getting late, Hera hadn’t reported in for three hours now. It was quickly decided by General Schmidt that a search party would be sent in to find her at all costs, he was also to accompany this party. Two UH-80 Ghost Hawks took off from a Liberty-class destroyer lent to them by the US Navy serving as a mobile headquarters for the Spec-Ops group stationed a couple of kilometers away from Altis waters. The Ghost Hawks had the iconic green and black dazzle camouflage and carried two squads of CTRG operatives. They flew low to avoid any kind of detection, be it friendly or enemy, this was a classified operation as the informant was carrying highly sensitive information about what the CTRG dubbed the East Wind Device, a prototype weapon developed by CSAT or the** **Canton Protocol Strategic Alliance Treaty a newly founded economical and military alliance between Russia, most of Asia and the Middle East, most of North Africa and a few countries in South America. The flight in of itself wasn’t long, it barely took twenty minutes but when they landed outside the town and moved in, it was something else. Right at the northern entrance of the town they were met by the mutilated corpse of a young boy. His head was half severed from his body, whoever or better, whatever did this definitely didn’t have the patience to finish the job and when the operatives started clearing the building of the town it got even worse. Every time a team would enter a building they would come out with at least a body, lining them up at the front of each house leaving behind a clear trail of bodies. Everything in the town was dead, not even the house pets were spared. Who or what could have done something like that? It was a question that Adam pondered upon for a while. Eventually after an extremely long half an hour of building clearing the operatives reached the last house at the edge of town that also happened to be the house of the informant. A team of four was quickly assembled to breach the building, two from the back and two from the front. The team swiftly breached the building with their flashlights on as the house itself was quite dark but when the two groups linked up in the living room of the two story house that was completely drenched in blood they found a body that was laying on its stomach on the floor. One of the operatives walked up to the body and turned it over. He was quick to confirm that that was the body of the informant but it heavily mutilated, most likely due to torture. Most of his fingers were missing but they weren’t cut off, the wounds were too deformed for them to be caused by a knife or anything like that, they were bitten off. They also quickly determined the cause of death, his trachea was severed, most likely from the bite wound on his neck. The operative that turned over his body also closed his eyelids in a sign of respect for the dead as they were still open. The four man team then advanced up the stairs of the house to the second floor and were quickly met by another gruesome image, the corpse of a woman, mutilated as well, she was almost completely skinned. One of the operatives threw up right next to the body as soon as he laid his eyes on her. He quickly recovered and went on with the rest of the team to breach the final room of the house. The room was way darker than the rest of the house, the four operatives were nothing short of blind but they continued to check the room with their rifle mounted flashlights. After a short search they pointed their flashlights at the bed in the room and spotted something, actually they spotted someone but something wasn’t right, the woman was sitting on the bed, with her legs crossed and her head tilted down, her clothes were drenched in blood and there was blood still dripping from her mouth. They quickly identified her to be the new recruit that they were looking for, Sergeant Hera Syndulla. The leader of the team holstered his rifle and walked up to the rookie, something that proved to be a great mistake. She slowly tilted her head upwards, her eyes still closed. The team leader slowly tried to put his hand on her shoulder but without warning she grabbed his hand, twisting and turning it repeatedly, breaking it in the process. He let out a scream as he fell to his knees right in front of her. She tilted her head back down and opened her eyelids revealing a pair of demonic looking eyes burning bright yellow, just like molten gold. Before the team leader could say anything else she cut his throat open with her knife. He struggled for a few seconds on the ground before he succumbed to his wound. The three other operatives could only watch in horror as their team leader was killed. They were left petrified at her brutality but that was quickly shrugged off by one of them, he stepped up from the two and pointed the gun at the Sergeant from a safe distance.**

 

**“Stand down Sergeant!” ordered the operative**

 

**She let out a demonic-like laugh as she made eye contact with the one that had stepped up. He felt his stomach turn as soon as he laid his sight at her appearance, it was haunting. The rookie slowly got up from the bed and began walking to the operative.**

 

**“I said stand down Serge-”**

 

**The operative was cut off by a loud crack that filled the room, his body quickly fell on the ground, lifeless. The remaining two operatives raised their guns ready to fire but before they could even react Hera threw her knife towards one of the operatives impaling him right in the left eye killing him instantly. The last operative managed to fire a few shots before he was thrown out the window by an unseen** **_force._ ** **He groaned as he landed on his back but before he could get up Hera jumped out the same window landing right on top of him and in the process impaling him right in the heart. She then pulled the knife out of his chest, cleaning it on her uniform. Hearing the gunshots everyone else rushed to the house and surrounded Hera, all of their rifles trained on her expect for a few that were carrying tasers.**

 

**“Stand down Syndulla!” ordered Adam**

 

**The General stepped up from the rest as he ordered her. She only responded with a animalistic growl. The General then nodded at the operatives carrying the tasers, they were quick to use them. Hera let out an extremely loud scream as jolts of electricity cursed through her body. Eventually after five tasers were fired at her at once she fell unconscious from the immense pain. Somehow she survived the amount of electricity that went through her, no ordinary human could survive something like this. Adam quickly determined that his prized rookie was no ordinary human. She was restrained and quickly taken back to the destroyer to be looked at by a doctor.**

 

Miller was both utterly shocked and disgusted at Adam’s story. He simply couldn’t fathom that the woman he loved for all these years had done something so cruel as that. Thoughts filled his head, what if she’d never loved him, just used him as a tool in her mischievous plots. He quickly dismissed these thoughts, he knew deep down that that good part of her, albeit small still loved him. Miller then recalled something, a mission report all the way back from 2028, it was named “The Oreokastro Incident” and was locked behind every single possible clearance, not even when he was promoted to a General he could access it, it was all puzzling to him that someone would want this simple mission report hidden so well. 

 

“Was that the Oreokastro Incident?” Miller asked

 

“Yes it was.” Adam responded

 

“You put her as my second-in-command and you don’t even tell me that she’s not mentally healthy?!” asked Miller furiously

 

“You found out eventually.”

 

“Yeah after she killed twenty Syndikat insurgents with her bare hands! For god's sake she ripped a guy’s throat with her teeth!”

 

“You were better off than me. At least you didn’t have to see a half decapitated child.”

“Still!”

 

“Shut it!” yelled Dutton. “You’re like an old married couple.” Dutton said dryly. “We need to think of a game plan, we can’t just hide here for the rest of our lives.”

 

“Dutton’s right Miller, we need to stop arguing and start thinking.” said Adam. “Any ideas?”

 

“I’ll contact Scott, maybe he can help us.” said Dutton

 

“He’s dead Dutton.” said Miller grimly. “Her daughter shot him along with the rest of his family.”  

 

“Amanda can’t do such things, she could barely hold a gun.” Dutton assured

 

“Hera made her do it a few days ago, since then Amanda’s by her side.” Miller explained

 

“How did she even find out where Scott was?” asked Adam

 

Miller sighed. “I located him three months after the assassination.”

 

“And there goes our last possible ally…” said Dutton

 

A few moments of silence ensued. Their situation was quite grim but it wasn’t a lost cause either. There were two people that might become their allies, the only people on planet Earth that ever defeated Hera in combat: her mother and sister. Miller knew that it would be next to impossible to get the two Jedi on their side as both Sabine and Aiden knew that Miller along with Adam were responsible for Hera’s fall to the dark but it was worth trying.

 

“We could try to find her family…” suggested Miller

 

Miller’s suggestion made Adam’s eyes shoot wide open. 

 

“Are you crazy?” asked Adam. “Her sister would kill me, I’m the reason she became a psychopath. “ 

 

“It’s worth a try, they are our only hope at formating any resistance against Hera and the CTRG.”

 

“He has a point Adam, we need them as our allies but how do we find them?” 

 

“I have something that might help us…” said Miller. He reached for his briefcase, placed it on the table, opened it, took out a few documents that had bright red “CLASSIFIED” stamps across all of them and laid them in front of the other two retired officers.

 

“What’s all this?” asked Dutton

 

“The locations of every single safe house that Scott used to possess.” Miller answered

 

“And how is this meant to help us find the two wizards?” asked Dutton

 

“They were last reported to be on Tanoa... “ Miller began explaining. “By now they most likely left the island and headed for the closest safe house to Tanoa which is a small house sixty kilometers from Sydney.”

 

“Are you sure that Hera doesn’t know about these safe houses?” asked Adam

 

“If she did Scott would have not survived more than a few weeks after he was made a traitor.” respond Miller

 

“Well, we’re dead man walking anyways. Let’s take my private jet, with a stop by Hawaii to refuel we should make it to Australia in about twelve hours.”

 

Both Miller and Dutton nodded in agreement. Their plan was set: they were to meet with the two “normal” Syndullas in Australia and no matter what they would get them on their side as if they didn’t it would be days maybe weeks until the darkness catches up to them.

 

\---

 

**The Nerve Centre, Federation High Command, Washington D.C**

 

The building of the Federation High Command was formerly known as the Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense and command centre for the American military. In the closing months of the Third World War the Human Federation was proclaimed, all NATO member states which by then was every single state that wasn’t in CSAT when the war began united under one flag and one leadership to secure peace on Earth once and for all. Soon after the proclamation of the Federation a question of where to have its military headquarters arose. The place needed to be far away from the fighting but at the same time easily accessible and defendable, it didn’t take long for the “provisionary” military government to determine that the Pentagon would be used as the High Command of the Human Federation. Shortly after the establishment of the Federation High Command the Council of Representatives was formed, it was like the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States military as it was formed of representatives from all branches of the Federation military but it played a different role during the war, it played the role of the leadership of the military junta the Federation became, during the war at least. But the Council itself were mere puppets to the person that had schemed all of what was happening in the world, the Chairman herself, General Hera Syndulla. That was the only reason why she wasn’t sent to a military prison for war crimes or just out right executed for what she had done to millions of human beings, the members of the Council, all of them quite prominent military leaders, were “loyal” to Hera. It was only because they were afraid for their own lives, they were all fully aware of her powers and had a glimpse of what she was capable of doing when as last ditch effort from CSAT to try to turn the tide of the war, they sent a team of twenty five Viper operatives, operatives on par with CTRG operatives, to kill the members of the Council when they were in session. This, of course, failed miserably. The Vipers might have easily dispatched of the guards around the building and the Nerve Centre but they weren’t ready for what was waiting for them when they breached the meeting room of the Council. One by one until all of them were slaughtered by Hera in a fit of rage. It was quick, the fight didn’t take for than a few minutes, the operatives were either cut in half by Hera’s lightsaber or slowly dismembered just to cause as much pain as possible. During the fight Hera was shot at least twelve times, several times in the abdomen and a few times in her leg and arms and somehow survived and made a full recovery. After the war the Federation finally became a fully fledged democracy, at least on the outside. The Council was stripped of most, if not all of its power and remained as an advisory body to the President of the Federation but realistically even the President was a puppet just as the Council was to Hera. After Hera’s passing the Council and President became relaxed, they no longer had to listen to some crazy yellow eyed maniac, or so they thought for a year. She could feel how it all changed, the atmosphere in the Nerve Centre was too joyful for her liking, during her reign anyone could feel the weight of the atmosphere every time she would be around, everyone was afraid, just how she liked it. She was about to bring it back to how it was. The Council was informed that General Smith would be coming to talk about the aliens that just took up camp in Camp Tempest but in reality their old Chairman was coming around to show them who was really in charge. Escorted by her newly arrived team from Tanoa, Hera arrived in the Nerve Centre under the building of the Federation High Command. The elevator she and her team used opened up to a long corridor that would lead straight to the room of the Council. They slowly walked down the corridor, there was no need to hurry anyways as the Council would be in session for at least a few more hours. Two guards that were standing by the door of the meeting room spotted their approach and immediately froze as soon they saw Hera. The two soldiers have been guards there ever since the Council was formed, they knew exactly how everyone on the Council looked especially Hera. Questions quickly arose in their minds, the obvious ones though like how is she alive or what happened to her. They lowered their weapons as the team of four approached them. Following standard protocol the two guards opened the doors and let the four inside. The room itself was quite large, in the middle there was a long table surrounded by twelve black office chairs made out of the finest leather that could be found on Earth, all four corners of the room had the flags of the Human Federation, basically the flag of the disbanded United Nations, along with all the branches of the Federation Armed Forces flags and a sizable screen on the wall opposite to the main entrance. The Council had all of its members present, that counts to twelve top brass of all branches of the Federation Military and all of them had their backs turned to the door as they were more preoccupied with arguing with General Smith over the video call. 

 

“Smith, you have to understand that we need to know what’s going on down at Camp Tempest! Don’t make me send normal soldiers to secure the base!” said General Armstrong in a threatening tone. General Armstrong was a representative of the Federation Army, formally a General in the American Military and the person behind the second invasion of Altis after CSAT took it over at the beginning of the Third World War. He was next in line to be the Chairman of the Council of Representatives if Hera would step down or in their case die. 

 

_ “I’m saying this for the fourth time Armstrong! The person that came in contact with the aliens for the first time is on her way to you.”  _ said Smith. Glancing up he noticed Hera and her team standing in the door.  _ “Looks like she arrived, good luck Armstrong.”  _ said Smith as he hung up the call.

 

Armstrong slowly turned around to meet the person. His eyes shot wide open as soon as he realised who the person was. He gulped at the sight of his superior. The rest of the Council turned around as well to face Hera, all of them having the same reaction as Armstrong, they simply couldn’t believe it. The room fell silent for a good few seconds, the tension was palpable. While the Generals and Admirals in the Council were petrified not daring to say a word Hera simply smirked at the officers. Armstrong was the first the break the silence.

 

“How?” he asked

 

“I don’t know.” Hera responded

 

“Are you responsible for the space ships?”

 

“No.”

 

“But you made contact with them?” Armstrong asked

 

“Yes.”

 

“How did you manage to do it?” 

 

“Those aren’t aliens, they’re humans. Hell, if anyone’s the alien here it’s me.”

 

“What do they want?” asked Armstrong

 

“Well, I’ve only spoken to the Admiral of the fleet that’s above the planet. He only wanted to set up a small garrison on the planet as apparently there is a galactic spanning war going on right now.”

 

“Are they on the winning side?”

 

“From what he told me, yes.” said Hera

 

“Do they want anything else?”  

“There’s a diplomatic envoy from the Republic, the apparent winners of this galactic war, on its way to Earth. They want to invite us into the Republic.”

 

“You know this is a lot for us to take in right?”

 

“I’m aware Armstrong, but we need to figure this out quickly.” said Hera

 

“You want to come back as the Grand General?”

 

“I don’t see why not.”

 

“Very well Hera. Who is for reinstating Hera Syndulla as the Grand General of the Federation Military raise your hands.”

 

The vote was unanimous, twelve hands raised, no against or abstains. Hera mentally smiled at the resoult.  _ “I guess they didn’t forget where their loyalty stood…”  _ Hera thought. “Let’s get to work then gentlemen.” 

 

\---

 

**13 hours later**

**60 km outside of Sydney, Australian Sector**

 

The three officers had arrived at the supposed safehouse for a few minutes. They decided not to drive up to the house as it would probably get them killed if there were any traps laying around. They evaluated the situation and tried making a plan to try to get inside the house without having to fight the Jedi. It was decided that Dutton alone would walk up to the house since he had met Sabine and Aiden before and was the most likely to forge an alliance with them. 

 

Dutton slowly approached the front door of the house. He looked around, making sure that nobody unwanted was watching him.  _ “Here goes nothing… “  _ he thought as he knocked on the door. A few seconds later the door opened and he was forcefully pulled inside the house. Both Adam and Miller remained calm, knowing that Dutton had it all covered. 

 

Aiden was the first to speak. “What are you doing doing here? “

 

“I'm here because we are looking for allies. “ Dutton responded 

 

“We? “ Sabine asked 

 

“Me, Adam Schmidt and Scott Miller. “

 

“Do you really think I would want to be allies with the people that were responsible for my daughter's fall? “ said Aiden

 

“I know it's wrong what they did but please consider it, we need your help. We are trying to form a rebellion against Hera. “

 

“There are fifty million soldiers on Earth, plus the CTRG. I'm always optimistic Dutton but you have to understand that we won't be able to form any proper resistance. “ said Sabine

 

“There are a lot of people that don't like the Federation and Miller knows where they are. “

 

Aiden sighed. “Fine, we’ll help you. You can tell them that they can come in. “

 

Dutton called out to the two officers to come inside. They quickly ran over to the house. By the time they entered the house and left their coats at the entrance the two Jedi had already went into the small living room of the house. The three officers walked into the room, Aiden and Sabine were already sitting on a couch. Sabine’s arms were crossed, she tracked their movements carefully. She definitely wasn't fond of Schmidt and Miller being there. Aiden on the other hand, was quite calm, she was quick to realise that it would be advantageous for both parties to form an alliance. The three stood in the middle of the room, not knowing who to speak first. Eventually Miller broke the silence. 

 

“We are fully aware of what we have done…”

 

Sabine suddenly jumped up from the couch. Her anger spiked as she approached Miller. He remarked the fact that she was almost at head level with him, she sure had grown a lot since he last saw her back in 2028. “Are you?! “ yelled Sabine. “Do you know how it feels like to fight your own sister?! “

 

It was beginning to become uncomfortable for him. “No I don't. “

 

“You turned my sister into a monster! “ 

 

“I loved her Sabine, I truly did… That's why I am here, I want to avenge her. “

 

“You didn't love her! You just kept her in check and made sure she does your bidding! “

 

Adam stepped up next to Miller. He wasn't about to let his friend be attacked by Sabine again. 

 

“Stop blaming Miller for what Hera became. It's not his fault she became what she did, it's my fault, I pushed her too far. “ said Adam

 

“Then why didn't you stop training her? “

 

“Because I thought I could control her, use her as a weapon but obviously I was gravely mistaken. There was no way to contain that flame. “

 

“I should kill you right now… “ Sabine hissed

 

“Sabine! “ said Aiden. Sabine had just stepped into dark side territory again, fortunately for her Aiden was quick to pull her aside and help her relax and refocus. “Revenge is not the Jedi way Sabine, remember that. “ Aiden whispered 

 

Sabine shrugged off her mother and sat back on the couch. She’d keep her grudge against the people responsible for Hera’s turn no matter what but she was willing to work with them if it was necessary to her family’s survival.

 

“I’m sorry for my daughter’s behaviour, she still gets emotional when there’s talk about Hera. She barely managed to put her sister in the past and now that she’s back it was all for nothing.” said Aiden

 

“It’s understandable for her to have these emotions.” said Adam. “We’re responsible for what she had become and we won’t deny it but we are here to seek allies and you are the only ones that ever managed to defeat her and still be alive.”

 

“It is the sad truth…” said Aiden. She looked back at her daughter sitting on the couch.  _ “Are you going to work with them?” _

 

_ “If it’s necessary.” _

 

_ “It is Sabine, they are our only allies, we’re on the run just like them. It won’t be long until she catches up to us.” _

 

_ “I’ll work with them but I won’t forgive them for what they did.” _

 

_ “That is fine Sabine, just please control your emotions.”  _ said Aiden. Sabine nodded in agreement. Aiden turned back around to Adam and Miller. “We’ll form an alliance with you but don’t let this make you think that we forgive you both for what you did to Hera.”

“We thank you.” said Adam. “Let’s hope this alliance will resist the test of time and complete its objective.”

 

“Indeed.”


	7. Return to Camp Ashla

**7th of March, 2036**   
**1200 hours, Near Camp Ashla, Altis, Mediterranean Sector**

Camp Ashla was located in the northern mountainous region of Alits on an abandoned civilian airstrip. Camp Ashla was founded in August of 2030 when Aiden and Sabine joined the FIA resistance movement on Altis that was opposing a NATO supported military government named the AAF or Altis Armed Forces. When Aiden and Sabine first arrived on Altis they were quick put in a command position within the FIA, mostly due to their unnatural abilities but also because they were actual capable leaders and the FIA where in short supply of them after the AAF offered them a fake peace deal an year prior in order to lure out their leadership and take them out in a swift stroke which sadly they succeeded but a small part of the FIA leadership survived and continued the fight. Aiden and Sabine where quick to bring the FIA back on its feet and start attacking the AAF again but it would only last for a few months until NATO arrived again on the island to help the AAF combat the FIA and along with NATO forces the CTRG came as well but for their own reasons. CTRG Group 15 under command of newly promoted Captain Hera Syndulla arrived on Altis a few days after the first NATO troops arrived. Group 15 was quick to attack the FIA mercilessly, destroying most of their major camps within a few hours. Camp Ashla remained standing as it simply wasn’t attacked by CTRG, NATO or AAF forces. In the closing weeks of the conflict Aiden took her daughter, Sabine, to the Oreokastro castle which had under it the only Jedi temple on Earth to begin her training in the light side of the Force. During her first meditation Sabine had her most desired question answered by the Force. She was presented with what drove her sister into darkness, the Oreokastro Slaughter. Her training was postponed way to early as CTRG swarmed the castle. The memory about that day still hit Sabine hard.

**The sound of boots pounding the stairs filled the underground Jedi temple. The two Jedi were trapped, there was only way in or out and that way was currently filled with special forces operatives. From the central meditation chamber in the middle of the temple three corridors split, each going to different sections of the temple. The operatives were getting closer by the second, Aiden had to make a split second decision, fight or flee. She chose fleeing to be the better option. Aiden grabbed her daughter’s arm and rushed down the middle corridor. The corridor was quite long and dark, it was at least one hundred meters long but it led to a training room brightly lit by white lamps that were powered by an unknown energy source. Sabine stopped in the middle of the room and began examining the room, she remarked the simple but beautiful architecture used along with the a rack on the left wall holding at least two dozen lightsabers. While Sabine was admiring the architecture Aiden was scrambling to find an exit. She knew there was a hidden exit somewhere in the room she just had to find it. The sound of the boots suddenly stopped, there was nothing but silence now.**

**“It’s clear Captain, you can come down.”**

**A few seconds later Sabine again heard boots, but this time it was different. It was only one person walking and it was getting ever closer. She looked over her shoulder and down the hall. She saw her albeit barely, she saw Hera, her sister, at the end of the hallway.**

**“Hera?” Sabine whispered**

**There was no answer, just silence when suddenly a sharp hiss filled the temple. A red blade emerged at the end of the hall, illuminating Hera’s scarred face. Her eyes looking even more sickening, bloodshot eyes and yellow irises. It was simply haunting. Without warning she started sprinting down the hall, in a few second it was a couple dozen meters away from Sabine. Sabine was simply petrified, she couldn’t budge. Feeling Hera approach Aiden ignited her lightsaber and lunges in front of Sabine, pushing Sabine out of the way in the process in order to stop Hera before she cuts her in half. After a few more seconds Hera emerges from the hallway and as expected lunges with her saber at the petrified Sabine but luckily for her Aiden was there to stop her. Green and red, dark and light, daughter and mother clash. The loud noises caused by the two lightsabers clashing made Sabine come back from her petrified state. By then Aiden was already looking to be loosing, just like on Tanoa, Aiden’s age began to show, she was becoming fatigued after every flurry of strikes from her rabid daughter. After a few more flurries Aiden was too fatigued to even hold up her lightsaber. Seeing that her mother's guard was down Hera pulled Aiden’s lightsaber from her grip and tossed it on the other side of the room. Aiden was then met with a boot right in her stomach, making her fall to the ground. She was too weak to even try to get back up, she laid there in a fetal position groaning from the intense pain. The elderly woman stood no chance against the rabid animal that attacked her. Aiden glanced at her daughter one last time before she expected Hera to deliver the killing blow. Aiden was trying to keep her emotions controlled and hidden but she simply couldn't. As a Padawan she was told stories about how people turned to the dark side, how radically different they were after turning and how evil they were but she never thought that she would be living one of those stories herself. Tears started pouring down her cheeks, her control was lost.**

**“I'm sorry Hera, it's my fault for what you've become. “ said Aiden. “Please come back to us, not for me but for Sabine! “ Aiden pleaded.**

**Hera remained silent. She just continued to stare down at her pleading mother.**

**“She still loves you, I still love you… “**

**With those simple words Hera fell to her knees, dropping her lightsaber in the process. Streams of tears started emerging from her eyes which turned back to their natural light green. She was back in the light for now. Sabine quickly rushed to her sister’s side, immediately embracing her into a tight hug. Both sisters began crying on each other's shoulders, they were finally reunited.**

**“I’m so sorry I left you with that scar…” whispered Sabine between the sobs.**

**“You don’t have to apologize Sabine, it was the price I paid for letting her take control.”**

**“Her?” asked Aiden**

**“You should know what I’m talking about, you’re the Jedi after all. I’m talking about my second personality, the Sith part of me…”**

**“You sure learnt a lot from that holocron.” remarked Aiden**

**“I did, but so did she. She’s getting stronger by the day and I grow weaker. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to hold her restrained. “**

**“We can help you Hera, can’t we mom? Just come with us, please.” said Sabine**

**“I’m afraid I can’t do that Sabine...” said Hera, her voice was clear but full of sorrow.**

**“Why not Hera? Please, I don’t want to lose you again…” pleaded Sabine**

**“I’m the CTRG’s most prized possession, if I desert they’ll just hunt me down along with you two.” said Hera. She then looked up at her mother. “Take her as far away from me and don’t come anywhere near me until she’s trained… to defeat me.”**

**Aiden nodded. “Wh-What?!” said Sabine. “I won’t kill you-” Sabine tried saying before Hera placed her index finger on her lips.**

**“My dying wish, please… for me Sabine. Train and when the time is right, kill her.”**

**“I-I can’t Hera, I can’t kill you…”**

**“By the time you’ll face her I’ll be long gone, you’ll kill the monster that killed in cold blood forty people in Oreokastro, you’ll kill the monster that killed our father and destroyed our family, not me… not me.”**

**“I can’t promise to kill my sister!”**

**“Her restrains are loosesing Sabine! I can’t hold her back for long! Please just promise me that you’ll kill her, avenge me, your sister…”**

**“I promise.”**

**“Thank you. Now leave, there’s an exit in the left wall Aiden.”**

**Aiden quickly rushed over the the wall and began touching the wall for any hidden levers or buttons to open the door. She quickly found a button in the wall and pressed it making a person sized exit open in the wall.**

**“Come on Sabine, we need to leave!” said Aiden**

**Hera got up from the ground, helping Sabine as well in the process. For one last time the two sisters tightly embraced each other. To Sabine’s disappointment Hera was the one to break off the hug, the two looked each other in the eyes one last time both could barely hold back their tears. After a few more seconds Hera turned around to pick her lightsaber and began walking towards the entrance to the long hallway that led to the room they were in. Hera looked back at her sister one last time.**  
  
**“Go Sabine. I will always be with you, no matter what.”**

**Those would be the last words that Sabine would hear from her sister. Sabine, still sobbing, followed her mother into the tunnel exit. Sabine glanced over her shoulder to only see the haunting yellow eyes looking back at her albeit only for a few short moments as Hera closed the exit behind them.**

One tear went down Sabine’s cheek. Even after all those years the memory of that day still haunts her. Maybe she could’ve done something different, maybe if she was stronger then her sister wouldn’t have been completely replaced by a bloodthirsty monster. All the possible outcomes of that day were rushing through her head, it was becoming overwhelming, even for her.

“Are you alright Sabine?” asked Gavin

“Ye-Yeah Gavin, I’m alright…” replied Sabine as she wiped her tear. “I just have some bad memories on this island, that’s all.”

“Why are we heading to an old insurgent base again?” Miller asked

“It’s the last place the CTRG would look for us, plus we need to set up a base of operations anyways.” replied Aiden

“There isn’t a place the CTRG won’t look for us as soon as they discover our plans, which they probably already did.” said Adam

“I’ve been around you for a few days now and I still don’t know what this CTRG is.” said Gavin

“It’s a special forces unit that was formed ten years ago by me…” Adam started explaining. “Its main goal was to find and destroy our enemy’s most secret weapons. Emphasize was, ever since Hera took control she basically made it into her personal secret police, making them commit war crimes and shit that they never would have done.”

“How could you let a Sith take over your unit?” asked Gavin

“I didn’t even know what a Sith was until we met you three. The only thing we knew about her is that she had supernatural powers that we simply didn’t understand and yellow eyes, that’s all.”

“But when you saw that her mental state wasn’t the best, why didn’t you try to remove her from that position?” Gavin asked

“Well, I chose to ignore her mental state but Dutton didn’t, he tried to get rid of her eight times and he also failed eight times.”

“I’m sorry if I couldn’t kill someone that could read minds and snap necks from kilometers away like they’re just twigs!”

“At least Scott finished what you started.” said Adam

“It was all for nothing anyways… ” scoffed Dutton

“It was out of our hands what happened to her Dutton. The reason that she is back is because it’s the will of the Force, something that we can’t control. ” said Aiden

“You’re quite calm even though your daughter that hates you and wants to kill you is back among the living.” said Miller

“I’m not calm, I’m scared shitless, I just know how to hide my feelings.” said Aiden

“Great…” said Miller

They were so involved into their debates that they didn’t even notice when they finally arrived at the abandoned insurgent base, Camp Ashla. The base was obviously ran down, it was abandoned for six years after all. Luckily for the newly founded rebellion all of the main buildings like the command building, a white warehouse in the middle of the airstrip, the ammo depot, a small white bungalow-like building off in the top right corner of the base and the vehicle depot, a enclosed space next to the command building. The six gathered next to the command building to discuss their next moves…

“We’re going to form two teams of three.” Aiden said

“What for?” asked Dutton

“One team is going to try and gather equipment from several caches that me and Sabine hid back in 2030 around Altis and the other team is going to stay behind and get this base operational.” said Aiden. “The teams are the following: Miller you’ll go with Gavin and Sabine to find the caches while me, Dutton and Schmidt are going to stay behind. Is everyone alright with the teams?”

No objections, just what they needed. There was no room for disagreements between the six.

“Perfect, let’s get to work then. “ said Aiden as she approached her daughter. “Good luck out there, make sure you’re back by nightfall.”

“You taught me well, I can handle anything.”

“Now don’t get cocky.”

Sabine let out a small chuckle as she turned around to the two other members of her team. Aiden also turned around to her team and led them off into the base.

“You two ready?” Sabine asked

“Well seeing that we only have pistols and we might be fighting CTRG operatives with fully automatic rifles in a few hours I’m as ready as I can get.” Miller said sarcastically

“We’re doing this to hopefully find something bigger than a nine millimeter Miller.” said Sabine

“Well let’s see how six year old weapons will help us…”

“Stop bitching and let’s get a move on, we need to be back by sunset.”

“Lead the way then Sabine.”

After a few minutes Sabine’s team finally left the base heading into the mountains north of the base where most of the weapon caches were hidden but also where Oreokastro and the Jedi temple were.

\---

**5 hours later**   
**Camp Tempest, Maryland, North American Sector**

“Are you sure this intel is solid?” Hera asked

“One hundred percent sure, we got this from our best informant on Altis, they are there and are setting up camp at an old FIA base in the mountains. “ said Smith

“Ready the Globemaster then. I want two Prowlers, a week worth of supplies and long range communication equipment.”

“Are you sure you don’t want more support? Altis is quite a dangerous island…”

“Don’t worry about me Smith, I’ll take my team and Amanda, we’re leaving in two hours. The arrangements better be made by then.”

“They will be done, I assure you…” said Smith as Hera left the briefing room.

Hera left the command building shortly after heading towards the barracks area that was shared with the newly arrived Republic garrison of around five hundred clones to look for her team and Amanda who she left in the care of Johnson, the team leader, to train her as much as he could and get her accommodated to her new life. She was quick to find them but they weren’t in the barracks, they were at the shooting range. She walked up to the four when Johnson was teaching Amanda how to do a tactical reload. It put a smile on her face seeing that Amanda already seemed to integrate into her new family.

“How many tries did it take for her to learn it Johnson?”

“Twentyfour.” replied Johnson

“Can she fire a rifle now at least?”

“For a seventeen year old she’s doing quite well…”

“Define quite well.”

“From a thirty round mag she can hit twenty rounds at one hundred and fifty meters.”

“That’s good, but we can do better.” said Hera as she turned around to Amanda. “Can’t we Amanda?”

“I’ll try my best mom, but you aren’t here to congratulate me on my shooting.”

“You pick up fast and yes, I am not here to just congratulate you, we are deploying in two hours, alone, on Altis.”

“Why so?” Johnson asked

“Sabine and Miller were spotted on the island, there is reason to believe that they are trying to set up some sort insurgent group on the island.”

“Are you sure that us five will be enough to fight them?” Amanda asked

“Of course I do- wait.” said Hera as she was cut off by a loud ringtone. She proceeded to detach a disc like object from her belt and put it in her palm. She then pressed a button on the disc and a small blue hologram of Admiral Randalla popped up.

“What is that?” asked Amanda

“It’s called a holocomm, it’s basically a phone but it has a hologram projector. The Admiral gave it to me a few days ago.” Hera explained. “Anyways, what’s the matter Admiral?”

“The envoy from the Republic is not coming anymore…”

“Did we do something that would exclude Earth from the Republic?”

“No, no, no, the vote already passed in the Galactic Senate. After I informed the Supreme Chancellor about the entire ordeal here and about your story he wants to meet you in person on Coruscant.”

“Oh, alright, when would that happen?”

“We wants to meet you as soon as possible.”

“Send a transport to Camp Tempest then, there is no need to make the Chancellor wait.”

“A transport will arrive in fifteen minutes, it will bring you to the Prejudice and we will then jump to Coruscant.”

“Fifteen minutes, got it.” said Hera as the hologram switched off. “I guess I’m not coming to Altis for now…”

“Do we still deploy then?” asked Johnson

“Of course you will, I’ll be back before you know it.” Hera said. “I need to grab some things from my office, I have to go now. Good luck out there.” said Hera as she turned around on her heels and began walking back to the command building. Right before she would have left the shooting range she turned around to the four. “Johnson take care of Amanda while I’m gone would you?” she said

“No problem Hera, any day.”

“Good.” said Hera as she finally left the shooting range.


	8. An Apprentice Meets a Master

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, Chapter 5. The title basically says what's gonna happen in this chapter. I'll let ya read.

**8th of March, 2036**

**1500 hours, Chancellor's Suite, Coruscant**

 

Hera had been waiting for about a hour now in the waiting room of the Chancellor's Suite. Apparently he was having a meeting with a few senators about a bill regarding the buying of more clone troopers. To Hera it seemed completely unnecessary or even outright stupid to argue if they should or shouldn't buy more clones seeing that the Separatists are outnumbering them ten to one and according to Admiral Randala they were actually losing the war altogether. After about fifteen minutes of more waiting the door the the Chancellor's Office slid open and two people, a woman and a man, both of them human, walked out, still talking about their grudges.

 

"How are we meant to find an end to this war if we keep buying clones!" one of the women yelled, she also seemed to be extremely frustrated. 

 

"Calm down Padmé, yelling about it won't help..." said the man

 

"I know Bail but Palpatine is the Chancellor he should focus on bringing the Republic to peace, not stir the pot of war even more!" 

 

"Come on Padmé, let's head to my office, we'll debate more about it there." said Bail

 

She deeply sighed. "Whatever you say, I really need to calm down..." said Padmé as both senators left the waiting room.

 

A few seconds after the senators left the waiting room another person emerged from the office, this time it was a tall, blue skinned alien with two long horns protruding from his head and two more protruding from two tail like appendages much like her’s but shorter. He stood tall in the doorway as he looked over at the Twi'lek Grand General.

 

"I am Mas Amedda, Vice Chair of the Galactic Senate and you must General Syndulla.”

 

“That’s me.”

 

“Chancellor Palpatine is ready to receive you.”

 

“That is good to hear…” said Hera as she rose from her seat in the waiting room, following Vice Chair Amedda into the office of the Chancellor.

 

As soon as she passed into the office she quickly noticed the two guards that were standing by the doorway. The two guards were armed with spikes of some sort. Their clothing was also something that stood out to Hera, their long crimson red robes and helmets of the same colour that covered their entire face and bodies.

 

_ “They definitely look intimidating to the everyday person…” _

 

Mas Amedda walked over to the right, gesturing to Hera to take a seat in the several futuristic looking armchairs. She also immediately sighted another person, an old man, most likely in his mid sixties with short white hair and wearing a crimson red robe.

 

_ “This man definitely likes red…” _

 

The Chancellor was turned away from Hera, hands clasped behind his back, he was looking out the wall sized window at planet spanning city of Coruscant or that what she thought. A feeling that she hadn’t felt since she last fought her sister came to her, it was associated with Sabine trying to get into her mind to predetermine her movements during their fights. For a few seconds Hera jerked around in the seat as the subtle pain got more noticable. Then, after a few more seconds it suddenly stopped.

 

“Fascinating…” Palpatine whispered. “Guards, Amedda, I would like some privacy with our new found ally.”

 

Mas Amedda nodded, heading out the office almost immediately through the same door they entered being followed by the two guards. Palpatine then turned around from the window and began examining Hera. She also looked right back at him, moments of silence turned into seconds and then minutes. It would have become extremely awkward for any beings to stay silent and stare at each other for that long but they were no ordinary beings as they soon would come to find out that about each other. And then it happened, Palpatine saw past Hera’s disguise and it put a wild smile on his face.

 

“You are quite strong in the dark side Lady Terranis…”

 

“How did you…”

 

“You may be able to hide your true self from a Jedi but not from me.”

 

“You are a Sith?” she carefully asked

 

“Yes I am but so are you...” he replied

 

“Maybe I am but I am looking for a teacher.”

 

“A teacher you say…” Palpatine said. “If i would take you as my apprentice I would break The Rule of Two as I already have an apprentice…”

 

“The Rule of Two?”

 

“The Rule of Two dictates that there can only be two Sith at once; a master and an apprentice, no more, no less...” 

 

“Then I will prove to you that I am worthy of being your apprentice!”

 

Palpatine creply chuckled. “No need  _ apprentice,  _ you have already done that when I learned how you took over your own home planet.”

 

“What now  _ master _ ?” Hera asked

 

“Now, I will make you a proposal. Seeing the unfortunate death of General Upari and Commander Strax, the 402nd legion is now leaderless and an entire campaign in in jeopardy because of that…”

 

“You have only met me for less than ten minutes and you want me to lead a campaign?” 

 

“Have I overestimated your skills Lady Terranis?”

 

“I can assure you that you haven’t overestimated me master. Just point me the way towards the battle and I’ll figure out the rest.”

 

“That’s fortunate for both of us then.  Head back to Admiral Randala and his flag ship, along with him you will be heading back to Solum to rendezvous with the rest of his fleet and the 402nd legion. When the fleet is ready get back to me via holocom, I will give you the target to attack.”

 

“What rank will I obtain in the GAR?” Hera asked

 

“By the time you’ll arrive back at Solum I will have spoken with Republic High Command to attribute you the rank of General and give you command of the 402nd legion.”

 

“Will that even be allowed by the Jedi?”

 

“They have no say in the matter, there is no need to worry about Jedi involvement in your promotion or in the entire campaign that you will lead.” Palpatine assured Hera

 

“I will be leaving then, if that’s alright with you master.”

 

“You may go.”

 

Hera rose from the armchair, straightened her white Grand General uniform and walked out the office. When she entered the waiting room Admiral Randala was there, waiting for her.

 

“So, how did it go?” he asked

 

“Well, quite well actually, so well that he gave me the 402nd legion to command.”

 

“He must really see something in you, he only met you for half an hour and already pissed off the Jedi for you.”

 

“He really did see something inside me…”

 

“What now?”

 

“We’ll be heading back to your flag ship and back to Earth to rendezvous with the rest of the fleet. Then he will direct us towards a target to attack.”

 

“Then we must not waste time! Follow me.”

 

\---

 

**5 hours later**

**FOB Tango, Altis, Mediterranean Sector**

 

The Forward Operating Base codenamed “Tango” was located on a hill next to the International Altis Airport. It was an old NATO outpost on the island during the Altian Civil War that went on from 2028 to 2030 and resulted in the FIA’s destruction. The purpose of the FOB was to offer a Quick Reaction Force in case Athira or the airport were attacked and after the war it was mostly abandoned after it was transferred over to the Altis Armed Forces. It was also a perfect spot for anyone seeking to scout out places like the airport or Athira. 

 

While on a supply run in Athira, Sabine, Miller and Gavin spotted a plane going in for a landing at the airport, it was something they haven’t seen since they came to Altis as planes to Altis weren’t that frequent anymore after the war. It was quickly decided by the three it would be worth checking out. Seeking not to get spotted by any possible enemies they chose to head to the abandoned FOB and climb on top on one of the two Designated Marksman Towers to set up overwatch on the airport. Seeing that the towers were more than ten meters in height and that the base was placed on a high hill it would be the perfect overwatch point. Luckily for the three they came equipped. Miller brought with him a pair of binoculars that could magnify up to twenty times. The three set up in the tower and began observing the airfield where the plane was coming in for landing. Miller’s face went white as soon as he spotted the marking on the tail of the plane, which they confirmed to be a C-17 Globemaster.

 

“I knew she’ll find us…” Miller whispered

 

“What are you talking about Miller?” Sabine asked

 

“That’s Hera’s C-17, she uses it to get around the world every time there’s a mission.”

 

“How do you know it’s hers?”

 

“Because the CTRG only has one C-17 Sabine.”

 

Sabine closed her eyes and reached out in the Force, trying to sense her sister or at least the darkness emanating from her aura but she couldn’t sense anything and that meant that she wasn’t on that plane. At the same time she wouldn’t just send her soldiers towards certain doom, something wasn’t right.

 

“Hera’s not in that plane, I would have sensed it.”

 

“Then who did she send?” Gavin asked

 

“Let’s wait and see…” said Miller

 

The three waited for about twenty more minutes until the C-17 finally taxied over to terminal of the airport and began lowering its ramp and spooling down its jet engines. A few more minutes pass before four people, dressed in CTRG uniforms, leave the plane along with two Prowlers acting as their transport. With a few more quick glances Miller confirmed the presence of the CTRG operatives.

 

“That’s definitely CTRG, but why did she only send four operatives when she could have sent at least four dozens.” said Miller

 

“Maybe it’s her own team, weren’t they the best of the best?” Sabine asked

 

“Possibly… Wait, I think they are mounting up in one of the Prowlers.” said Miller. “Yeah they are…”

 

“Where do you think they are heading to?” Gavin asked

 

“They seem to be heading towards Athira… Shit.”

 

“We need to get there before they begin questioning the populus...” said Sabine

 

“Why would that be bad? They already know we are on the island…” said Gavin

“Because in CTRG terminology questioning means death for the one that was questioned. No witnesses.” said Miller

 

Sabine jolted up and jerked Miller and Gavin up and began heading down the stairs of the DMT towards their “requisitioned” offroad. “Come on, we need to hurry!”

 

Within a few minutes they were already speeding down the hill and towards Athira. After a few more minutes they were right outside Athira and then they heard a gunshot and it was really close related to their position.

 

“Dammit, we weren’t fast enough!” Sabine yelled frustrated

 

“Sabine we can’t save everyone, sometimes people die…” said Gavin

 

“He’s right Sabine.” said Miller

 

“You have no right to say anything about that Miller!”   

 

“How about we stop arguing and stop the CTRG team before they kill more people!” yelled Miller

 

Then another gunshot was heard.

 

“You’re right Miller… you’re right. Let’s get to it, now remember we want them alive so we can interrogate them.” said Sabine

 

The three began sneaking up to the origin of the second gunshot and they snuck up so close to the CTRG team they could hear them talking with a third potential victim. The person that they were talking to was completely petrified, he could barely get out any words and then the gunshot and a thud as the body fell to the ground. Another person was added to the bodycount of the CTRG.

 

“Alright how’s next?” one of the CTRG operatives said

 

“I’ll say this one.” another said

 

One of the operatives brought up an old man, barely walking and that was supporting himself on a wooden cane. They proceed to rip his cane out his hands and throw it away and then another operative hit the old man in the back with the butt of his rifle making him kneel in front of the shortest operative of them all that was armed with a M1911, quite the old gun, at least by 2035 standards.

 

“What do you know about the insurgency?” the shorter operative asked

 

Sabine had enough, she drew her lightsaber and was followed by Gavin but moments before she would ignite it and lunge at the cold blooded killers that were the CTRG operatives Miller flashed a flashbang grenade before her.

 

“Why do you have that on you?” asked Sabine

 

“I was in the CTRG, I come equipped for any possible situation. It should be enough to disorientate them long enough for us to get the drop on them.”

 

“Good, toss it over the wall then.” said Sabine

 

Miller pulled the pin of the grenade and tossed it over the wall, rolling right in the middle of the CTRG team.

 

“For the last time, tell me where the- GRENADE!” the shorter operative yelled right before the flashbang went off, temporarily blinding and deafening anyone close enough to it.

 

In that moment all three jumped over the wall, rushing to restrain the four operatives. Sabine pushed the shorter one and one more into another wall nearby using the Force, knocking them unconscious while Gavin knocked the third operative to the ground and pointed his lightsaber at his neck and Miller did the same by tackling the last operative and restraining him with his own zip ties. Gavin shortly followed on that by restraining the operative he knocked to the ground and Sabine also followed suite. Miller then jerked an operative that was still recovering from the flashbang and tossed him over to the wall that they jumped over. 

 

“Get them all lined up.” said Miller

 

The two Jedi picked their own captured operatives and moved them over to the wall. Miller began taking off their helmets and balaclavas in an effort to identify them. The first three were no surprise to him as they were Hera’s squadmates: Johnson, Allan and James but it was the last one, the shortest of them all, the one that was carrying the M1911 and the one that shot the innocent civilians, that was the kicker. Sadness and disappointment could be seen on Sabine’s face as Miller uncovered the operative. It was Amanda.

 

“What has she done to you Amanda…” Sabine whispered as she traced her hand on her cheek

 

“What should we do with them Sabine?” asked Miller

 

“As I said, we’ll be taking them back to Camp Ashla for interrogation…”

 

“Even Amanda? She’s just a misguided kid Sabine, we can help her.”

 

“That’s what my father said on Tanoa in 2030 about Hera and then she killed him in cold blood when he tried to help her.”

 

“I’m sorry Sabine… I didn’t know.” said Miller

 

“I’ve gotten over it.” she simply said. “Gavin go grab the car and bring it here.”

 

Gavin nodded and sprinted off to get the offroad closer so they could load their new POWs and drive them back to Camp Ashla so they could be interrogated for any intel valuable to their cause. Within a few minutes Gavin brought the car next to them and began helping with loading the operatives. They were loaded without a hassle in the trunk and then were tied to the car to make sure they wouldn’t try to jump out when they would wake up. Sabine volunteered to stay in the back not just because there weren’t enough seats in the front but because she wanted to speak to Amanda as soon as she regained consciousness. After twenty more minutes of driving they had finally arrived back at base and began unloading their new prisoners. As they were moving Johnson, Allan and James towards a small and enclosed shack right next to the white warehouse acting as the command building for the base Sabine’s radio crackled.

 

_ “Sabine, is that you outside the command building?”  _ Aiden asked

 

“Yes mom, that’s me, Gavin and Miller along with a captured CTRG team we found in Athira.” Sabine said

 

_ “Are you crazy?! You brought CTRG to the camp?!”  _ Adam yelled over the radio

 

“They already knew where we were, they were just having their daily dose of war crimes when we captured them.” said Sabine

 

_ “We set up on a nearby hill to overwatch the base, we’ll be down in ten. Get the CTRG operatives ready for questioning.”  _ said Aiden

 

“Will do…” said Sabine.

 

She then turned around to Miller and Gavin. “Put the three regulars in the shack and make sure those zip ties are not loosened, I’ll take Amanda first for questioning.”

 

“What do you plan on doing with her?” Gavin asked

 

“I’ll just talk to her, maybe I can bring her to our side if I reveal to her what Hera really had done in the past.”

 

Sabine turned around and headed back to pick up Amanda. Sabine gently lifted the girl up using the Force and also gently walked her into the white warehouse. She closed the door behind her and rested Amanda against a crate while she hastily assembled an interrogation area. She grabbed a table and placed it in the middle of the warehouse. She then took two foldable chairs from a box and put one on each side. Sabine then again lifted Amanda and placed her on a chair. She then removed Amanda’s zip tie in order to show her that she trusts her enough not to try to escape. Sabine then sat on the chair opposite to Amanda and awaited for her to wake up. No more than five minutes pass when Amanda wakes up still groaning from the lingering pain.

 

Amanda rubbed her head, trying to relief some of the pain. “So that’s how it feels to be flashbanged…” Amanda whispered

 

“I’m sorry you had to go through that.” Sabine apologized

 

Amanda’s awareness suddenly came back to her when Sabine spoke. She immediately reached for her handgun but she came back empty handed. Figuring there was no way of escaping the situation that she was in Amanda let out a sigh of defeat.

 

“What do you want?” she asked

 

“I want you to turn back from this dark path you are following because of my sister.”

“Give me a good reason to betray my adopting mother.” Amanda said coldly

 

“Amanda do you even hear yourself? Two weeks ago you were so sweet, warm and caring, you were always spending time with your family, your mother, father and brother. You four were inseparable and then you killed them in cold blood, why?”

 

“It’s none of your business what I choose to be my future.”

 

“You have no future if you go with a Sith. She’ll dispose of you whenever your usefulness runs out. The Sith that inhabits that body is not Hera, even if it looks like her. Hera died a long time ago and she is not coming back.”

 

“How can you say that about your own sister?” Amanda said. “You don’t deserve the love she dedicates you.”

 

“Love? Love from a Sith? Are you hearing yourself?”

 

“She cares about you Sabine, more than anyone that’s alive right now.”

 

“What do you mean?” Sabine asked

 

“The good Hera is back Sabine, she was never gone in the first place. If you Jedi weren’t this close minded you would’ve seen it a long time ago.”

 

“And how do you know, you’re not even force sensitive. She knows how to hide her true self and you have no way to see past it.”

 

“If ‘a evil Sith’ is the only one that inhabits that body then why did she spare me? She could have easily killed me, but she didn’t and you know why?”

 

“Why?”

 

“Because Hera cared for me and always will, if it was only a bloodthirsty killer in that body I would have been long dead.” said Amanda

 

“I guess I will find out the truth when she comes to rescue you.” said Sabine

 

“She won’t come any time soon Sabine, she’s on the other side of the Galaxy talking with the Chancellor of the Galactic Republic about Earth.”

 

“Then we have more time to talk don’t we?”

 

“We really do Sabine, we really do…”

 

\---

 

**The Prejudice Venator-class Star Destroyer, High Earth Orbit, Sol System, Unknown Regions**

Hera was in her quarters when the Prejudice left hyperspace and arrived over Earth. She had slept throughout the entire trip as she really needed some rest, she’d been awake for at least four days straight. She was woken up by the loud buzzing noise of the door bell of her quarters. Hera got back up on her feet, walked over to the door and pressed a button on a side panel, opening the door. A clone trooper stood in the door, she quickly identified the trooper to be Captain Bolt.

 

“Is there a problem Captain?”

 

“No General, I’m just here to inform you that we’ve arrived over Solum and the Chancellor’s waiting on the holocom to talk to you about the campaign that you will lead.”

 

“Then let’s head to the bridge, there’s no reason to keep the Chancellor waiting.”

 

Bolt and Hera quickly walked to a turbo lift that took them straight to the bridge where Admiral Randala was already talking with Chancellor Palpatine, in hologram form of course. The two walked over to Admiral Randala in order to be able to see and speak with the Chancellor as well.

 

_ “Ah, General Syndulla, it’s a pleasure to hear that you have accommodated in your new flagship.” _ Palpatine said

 

“What can I say, it’s not a bad ship.”

_ “Indeed, now on more pressing matters. I have some wonderful news for you General, Republic High Command has agreed to instate you as a fully fledged General within the Grand Army of the Republic and to give you command of the 402nd legion along with the fleet of the five Venators in orbit above your planet.” _

 

“That is indeed good to hear but we should be talking about the campaign that I will have to lead.”

 

_ “The target for this campaign is the planet of Umbara, the 212th and 501st have been pushed out of the planet after a Jedi General betrayed the Republic and sabotaged the entire invasion.” _

 

“I presume the objective of the campaign is to capture the planet?” Hera asked

 

_ “Indeed General. I have made available to you the mission reports of the 212th and 501st, they should provide enough insight into the situation on Umbara.” _

 

“I will read them as soon as I can. Is there anything else Chancellor?”

 

_ “This is everything, good luck General.” _

 

The hologram flicked off.

 

“Get the fleet ready to jump to Umbara.” Hera ordered

 

“We’ll require multiple jumps, Umbara is on the other side of the Galaxy.” said Victor

 

“Than plot them, jump when ready. If you need me I’ll be in my quarters.”

 

Within a few minutes the fleet jumped in hyperspace heading to the second jump point, Kiros. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, outro... Kiros here I come I guess.


	9. Coming to the Rescue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So around five months of waiting for Chapter 6... Yeah, don't really have anything to say to defend myself. I was just REALLY lazy these past months. I really hope I can get back into writing as I want to finish this fan fiction. No promises on when the next chapter will drop though. Anyways, have a good read.

Three hours have passed since the fleet jumped from Earth, heading to the second jump point over Kiros before they would arrive at their destination: the planet of Umbara. Hera took this time to read the after action reports of the 501st under command of Jedi General Pong Krell and 212th under command of Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi. Although having problems understanding written Basic she did manage to determine the main problem with the whole invasion. The problem being the way that the Jedi leadership thought out the way to ultimately capitulate the planet. They thought that if they would take the capital and major civilian centers it would be over and the Umbarans would surrender but they were dead wrong. What they were right about though is that they correctly assessed the fact the Umbarans were waging a guerilla war, never directly attacking them. Even if they did determine that they didn’t change their plans whatsoever, they still took it as a conventional war. At the same time the entire campaign was sabotaged by the traitorous Pong Krell.

 

It took about ten more minutes for Hera to finish reading the after action reports of the botched attempt of invading Umbara. Using a holographic map of Umbara she then began devising her plan to conquer the planet once and for all. She divided her plan in three stages: the first being the neutralization of any ships in orbit and establish naval superiority then the second stage would consist of the 402nd legion taking the three main civilian centers on Umbara, the capital and two cities but then she took looked over to a datapad that was displaying the situation of the 402nd. 

 

“Nine thousand troops?!” she yelled out loud. “How the fuck am I meant to take a planet with nine thousand soldiers?!”

 

Hera wasn’t really angry but extremely puzzled at the number of troops available to her. She quickly found a way to supplement her numbers by at least a thousand more. She would bring in whatever’s left of the CTRG, they sure will help but she needed more. She couldn’t bring in normal Federation troops at the risk of them talking about her with the clones and revealing her true past. Hera then decided to call upon Admiral Randala, he sure could help find more Republic military support. She turned on her wrist communicator.

 

_ “Yes General Syndulla?” _

 

“Can you please come down to my quarters, it’s related to Umbara.”

 

_ “I will be on my way General.” _ said Victor as he closed the channel

 

A few minutes pass before the doorbell rang.

 

“Enter.” said Hera

 

The door slid open and Admiral Randala walked in.

 

“Is there a problem?” Victor asked

 

“Take a look at this. “ said Hera as she handed him the datapad displaying the situation of the 402nd. 

 

Victor skimmed through the datapad, not seeming to be surprised or concerned about anything on it. 

 

“Am I supposed to see something wrong here? “ he asked

 

“Of course you are! How am I meant to take over a planet and maintain control with only nine thousand troops?!”

 

“Many Jedi have done it in the past, some with less troops.”

 

“Well congrats to them but I bet they never fought an entire planet's worth of people that want to defend said planet. “

 

“You're right, they always fought concentrated forces of easily disposable droids… “

 

“See! I need more troops, I can maybe get

an additional thousand from Earth but I need at least another legion to be able to even hope to win at Umbara. “

 

“I'll try to get a list of the available legions. Do you need anything else? “

 

“No, not really.” said Hera as Victor turned around on his heels and began heading towards the door. “Actually there is something else. “

 

Victor turned around right before exiting the room and rose one of his eyebrows. 

“Are we able to make contact with Camp Tempest? “ she asked

 

“We should be able to, there's a holoprojector on the bridge or in your office if you wish for more privacy. Anything else? “

 

“That's all. Thank you for your help Victor, you may leave now. “

 

“Your office is down the hall to the left.” Victor said right before he left. 

 

Hera began gathering her datapads in order to bring them over to her new office aboard the Prejudice when her holocom, which was on her bed went off. She proceeded to pick it up and place it in her palm. When she answered the hologram of a hooded figure appeared in front of her. 

 

_ "Apprentice…"  _

 

"Master." 

 

_ "I have a new assignment for you, something more important than Umbara."  _

 

"What would be more important than Umbara, master?" 

 

_ "My other apprentice, Darth Tyranus has been training his own apprentice, something that I haven't allowed."  _

 

"What is my assignment, master?" 

 

_ "A shuttle will rendezvous with your ship over Kiros. One of my most trusted pilots will fly you to Raxus Prime. I will be in touch with more instructions as soon as you reach Raxus."  _

 

"I will not fail you." 

 

The hologram then disappeared. Hera threw the holocom on her bed change. She put on her and reached for the backpack she took with her. She began going through it searching for something, her lightsaber to be exact. She found water, some MREs she had with her just in case, some ammo for her handgun and no sign of a lightsaber. Almost immediately after finishing rummaging through her backpack it hit her, she’d left it back on Earth as she couldn’t risk having an unfortunate encounter with a Jedi and then having her true identity revealed.

 

_ “Let’s hope Palpatine doesn’t mind a detour…” _

 

A gentle rocking was felt as the ship left hyperspace. Suddenly alarms started blaring, making Hera rush out of her quarters into the hall of the Venator. Seeing the commotion in the hall she could only wonder for now what happened, were they hit by something, did they encounter enemies or were they somehow boarded? Before she got into a turbolift that led to the bridge an intercom next to the lift keyed up.

 

_ “All hands man battlestations! All hands man battlestations! Separatist ships in the sector!” _

 

Hera sighed as she got into the turbolift.  _ “Let’s hope Palpatine doesn’t mind two detours…” _ . The turbolift quickly took her up to the bridge where clone officers were scrambling to get the ship and fleet in order. She calmly walked up to Admiral Randala, who was calmly issuing orders to the clones. 

 

“What’s going on?” Hera asked

 

“Three Separatist frigates orbiting above Kiros, they were here when we arrived. I just issued the order to the entire fleet to open fire. “ Victor responded sternly. And so it was, a few seconds after Victor gave the order blue bolts began emerging from the barrels of the heavy turbolaser batteries on all the seven Venators within the fleet in rapid succession. Within a few seconds of flight time the bolts began pounding the fragile looking frigates. Five minutes of uninterrupted fire ensued, one after another the three frigates were torn apart by the sheer power of the turbolaser bolts. A few more minutes pass until the small Separatist fleet was called neutralized. The alarms stopped blaring within the ship and the fleet ceased fire shortly after. As they were doing that though another alarm flared up, it was from one of the sensory stations.

 

“Two ships are emerging from hyperspace right in front of us!” the clone officer manning the sensory station said

 

The two general officers stood still at the window ports waiting to see what ships would emerge from hyperspace. Fortunately for them two Venators appeared right in front of them. It was a bit puzzling to Victor and Hera why two more Venators just appeared over Kiros, they sure weren’t an addition to the already giant fleet of Venators. They were about to find out though as they were immediately contacted by one of the Venators. The duo walked to the holocom in a secondary room within the bridge and answered the call. The hologram of a man appeared, he was average build, brown hair and beard and gray-blue eyes. He was wearing a white robe. Admiral Randala quickly identified the person the be the well known Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi.

 

“General Kenobi, a pleasure seeing you. May I ask what are you doing here?”

 

_ “The planet was invaded by Separatist forces a few rotations ago, we were sent by the council to liberate it.” _

 

“Well, we dealt with the fleet in orbit Master Kenobi.”

 

_ “You’ve done a fine job of it Admiral but I have to ask who is that next to you?” _

 

“Oh, this is General Hera Syndulla, she’s the new commander of the 402nd.”

 

_ “Hmm, she must be one of the new Knights-” _

 

“I’m not a Jedi.”

 

Kenobi was quite surprised by her response, mainly because it was unheard of a normal person to be put in charge of an entire clone legion.  _ “The Chancellor must have something to do with this…”  _ he thought. He rubbed his beard for a few seconds before speaking again.

 

_ “It was a pleasure meeting you General Syndulla. I must go now, there’s a planet waiting liberation. May the Force be with you.” _

 

The hologram dissipated shortly after. Victor proceeded to turn around on his heels and walk back towards the front view ports of the bridge while Hera remained at the holocom.

 

“I forgot to mention something Victor…”

 

Victor turned his head around, looking back at Hera. “What would that be?”

 

“I have some urgent matters to attend to back on Earth.”

 

“Don’t worry about the fleet, I’ll manage. When are you leaving?”

 

“As soon as the shuttle that the Chancellor sent arrives.”

 

“You’re really getting along with the Chancellor, aren't you?”

 

“You could say so…”

 

\---

 

**2 hours later**

**Camp Ashla, Altis, Mediterranean Sector**

 

The six rebels were sitting around a table inside a white warehouse that acted as the main building of Camp Ashla. They were discussing their next move, what could they do with their prisoners and how could they find any possible allies. Adam summed it up nicely for everyone, they were dead men walking, nothing more, nothing less and he wasn’t wrong. He knows first hand what happens when someone goes after someone Hera gives a damn about, they end up dead no matter what. Of course the three Jedi denied the true facts and even Miller went onto their side while he remained with Dutton.

 

“Denial is just going to get us killed faster!” Adam exclaimed

 

“We are aware of the fact that we have a target on our backs Adam, but this is not the time to become paranoid at the possibility of her coming for revenge because we took her team as prisoners.” Aiden said

 

“You’re the leader around here Aiden, what do you propose we do?” Adam asked

 

“We need to move, that’s for sure.” Aiden said

 

“We’re all aware of that but where should we go?” said Adam

 

“Maybe we can make it to Stratis, that island is filled with abandoned military installations, FIA ammo caches and it’s completely deserted, we could hide anywhere.” said Miller

 

“If we could get to my plane then yes we could’ve, maybe even leave the Mediterranean all together but they most likely have it under guard.” said Adam

 

“You might be wrong there Schmidt.” said Gavin

 

“How so?”

 

“When we saw them land the only other soldiers apart from the ones we captured were the pilots of the plane.”

 

“He’s right, we only saw the three crew members, no more. We could easily take them on.” Miller said

 

“Well it looks like we have a plan. Start loading everything that we could take with us on the plane onto the Prowler and Offroad, we are leaving in one hour.”

 

Everyone nodded and headed out of the building except for Aiden and Sabine.

 

“Do you think she’ll catch up to us?” Sabine asked

 

“Definitely, especially now that we took Amanda prisoner.”

 

“Maybe we’re lucky, Amanda told me that she was heading for Coruscant to meet with the Chancellor.” said Sabine

 

“Maybe the Jedi caught her, let’s pray they did.”

 

“Damn right…”

 

\---

 

The shuttle had been in hyperspace for around two hours. It was heading towards Earth after Hera embarked on it back over Kiros. The motive behind the detour by Earth was so that Hera could retrieve her lightsaber as she left it on Earth for obvious reasons and along with a well needed change of clothes as a pressed white parade uniform wouldn't be adequate for fighting another Sith. 

 

The shuttle was nearing its first destination after a two hour trip. From her last check, Hera determined that they were twenty minutes away. In order to check the ETA she had to go into the cockpit, where the pilot of the shuttle that was a red guard, similar to the ones she saw in her master's office back on Coruscant was staying. During the entire trip he didn't utter a single word and that made Hera curious into why he was keeping silent for no apparent reason.type.  Admittedly it was a childish thing to bother someone that clearly didn’t want to be bothered but she saw him as a possible ally or even a friend as she didn’t have many of those anymore. 

 

_ “Maybe just an ally for now…”  _ Hera thought as she walked through the threshold of the door and then headed for the navigational computer located between the pilot and co-pilot seats. Reaching the computer she leaned in but before she could open the interface of the computer the red guard pressed one of the buttons on his console in turn turning on the navigational computer’s interface.

 

“We’re ten minutes out.” the red guard said

 

“How did you know?” said Hera as she leaned back

 

“Instinct.”

 

“Huh, then what else does your instinct say about me?”

 

“I don’t need my instinct for that, Chancellor Palpatine told me enough.”

 

“Did he now?” said Hera as she crossed her arms. “Tell me, what did Palpatine say about me?”

 

“Well for starters I know that you’re on a special assignment given by Palpatine himself, I also know that you’re not an ordinary Twi’lek.”

 

“What do you mean by that?”

 

“I know you’re a Sith, I also know the same thing about him.”

 

Hera hummed, she was quite surprised by this man’s sincerity. “How come he trusted with such an incriminating piece of knowledge?”

 

“Only a handful of red guards actually know his true identity, four maybe six, we’re the ones that stay with him and escort him almost everywhere.”   
  
“I see…”

 

“I did forget to mention something though, Palpatine sent the rest of the mission details about an hour ago while you were sleeping.”

 

“How did you know I was sleeping?”

 

“Your snoring is quite loud, no offense.”

 

Hera slightly chuckled at his remark. “I guess that still didn’t change…”

 

As she said that the shuttle left hyperspace right over Earth. “The mission details are on the datapad over there by the door.” said the guard as he pointed towards the datapad.

 

Hera walked over to it and picked it up. She then opened the door and was walking through the threshold of it but right before leaving it she turned around to the guard that was still in the pilot seat.

 

“You know, I never got your name.”

 

“It’s Kos Faujat.”

 

“Nice name…” said Hera as she closed the door behind her.

 

A few more minutes pass until the shuttle begins to heavily rock, a sign of atmospheric reentry. It didn’t last long though as the shuttle quickly made its way through the upper layers of the atmosphere and was now only a dozen kilometers above Camp Tempest. Hera was calmly reading the datapad containing her mission details when the tall red guard entered the room.

 

“You’re not flying the ship?”

 

“It’s on autopilot, we are now landing at your base.”

 

A few seconds and a slight thud was heard as the landing gear of the shuttle made contact with the concrete of the landing pad. The ramp at the back of the shuttle slowly lowered letting the two walk out of shuttle. As soon as the two disembarked the shuttle they were met by a familiar face, at least to Hera it was.

 

“Johnson, good to see you.”

 

“Good to see you too Hera, what brings you back to Earth?”

 

“Well I’m here to get my gear and also to get the CTRG ready for an invasion.”

 

“An invasion?”

 

“The CTRG is going to a planet called Umbarra.”

 

“All of it?”

 

“All of it. Call all operatives back to Camp Tempest immediately.”

 

“But we can’t just do that, they’re spread all across the globe.”

 

“You’ve got a few days, I got some private matters to deal with first then we can think about Umbarra.”

 

“I’ll issue the order but there is a problem. There is a problem regarding your own squad.”

 

“What’s wrong?”   
  


“They have missed ten check-ins, we believe they were captured by the FIA remnants on Altis.”

 

“I’ll deal with that myself, just make sure that you get all CTRG operatives back to Camp Tempest by the time I’m done with all my private matters.”

 

Johnson nodded as Hera began running towards the command building standing tall in the middle of the camp. She quickly reached it and began running up the stairs all the way up the the last floor where her office was. She pulled out her key and opened the door to the office. Hera quickly changed into her combat fatigues, grabbed her lightsaber and backpack and rushed straight back to the shuttle in a matter of minutes.

 

“We’re making a detour. Come on, get in.” said Hera to Kos

 

Kos followed her into the shuttle and began the take off procedures. Within a few minutes they were off the ground and speeding towards space. A few seconds pass until the shuttle reaches Low Earth Orbit.

 

“Where’s that detour?”

 

Hera pulled a holomap of the planet and pointed towards Altis. Kos quickly inserted the coordinates of Altis and let the autopilot do the rest. The shuttle then dived back into the atmosphere, going straight towards Altis. A few seconds pass until the shuttle breached the lower clouds and was right over Altis. From above the island itself seemed abandoned. It was like that ever since the Altian Civil War of 2028. The war lasted three years, up until 2031 and it left a significant scar on the population as most of it was either killed in the deadly conflict or simply left the island to seek a better life. From the thirty thousand or so people that lived on the island only a few hundred remained. A once thriving island now reduced to nothing. Dim lights originating from the main cities of the island along with the main airport were all that was left. 

 

“It’s more abandoned then I remember it to be.” Hera said

 

“Where do you want to land?”

 

“You see those bright red lights? That’s an airport, that’s where my team landed. We’ll start off from there.”

 

Kos nodded as he began flying the ship towards the airport. As he came above the airport he began the landing procedures and shortly after landed next to the C-17. The ramp lowered and Hera rushed out only to stop dead in her tracks due to the fact she found three gun barrels pointed straight at her. Those were of course the three pilots that were crewing the C-17 and were simply reacting to the fact that a literal UFO landed right next to their plane. They quickly realised who it was and lowered their weapons shortly after.

 

“Sorry for that General, what brings you here?” the Captain said

 

“I’m here to get my team back. You should still have a Prowler, right?” said Hera

 

“Yeah, it’s still in the hold, Sam will get it for you.” said the Captain

 

“Alright, that should be all. Now get back in that C-17 and head back to Camp Tempest.”   
  


“Will do General.” said the Captain as he saluted along with his co-pilot and headed back into the C-17. Hera then got into the Prowler, turned on the engine and as she was about to head out when the red guard that she was accompanied by jumped in the passenger seat next to her and in turn making Hera question his decision.

 

“You’re coming as well?”

 

“I don’t see why not, I don’t really see much action.”

 

“We’re most likely going to have to fight Jedi. Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

 

“I am, I even trained to fight Jedi. The pike I’m using is made out of a material that lightsabers can’t cut through, trust me, I got this.”

 

“If you say so, let’s head out then.”

 

\---

Miller and Schmidt were almost done packing their equipment when one of the laptops on a table next to them started to display a warning, a perimeter breach to be exact. Schmidt brought along some mobile motion sensors, a few dozen of them, enough to cover the entire perimeter of Camp Ashla, all the way to the hills six hundred meters or more from the base itself. Taking a closer look at the laptop Miller noticed that the ones on the hills north of the base were set off and almost immediately after taken offline. He grabbed a pair of binoculars and rushed outside to one of the guard towers overlooking the northern hills. He scanned the hills as best he could but he found nothing. He believed at that time that the sensors were most likely triggered by some big animal, a bear or wild boar maybe, that would eventually turn out to be a big mistake. Letting out a sigh of relief he headed back to packing.

 

Unknowingly to Hera, her squad had already freed themselves, of their restraints at least. They were still stuck in the small shack made out of stone, it’s windows were boarded up and the only source of light was the hole in the roof. They already probed the shack for any weaknesses that they could exploit but everything they found would simply not work. But they left out one of the most obvious weaknesses, the gaping hole in the roof.

 

“Why don’t we just climb out of the hole?” Amanda asked

 

“All three of us are too big to fit through, plus the roof’s probably so old it won’t hold anyways.” said Johnson

 

“Did you forget I’m here? I could fit through that hole for sure. Then I could get on the roof, slide down and open the door.”

 

“Are you sure you want to this Amanda, you could get hurt.”

 

“They won’t see me, they’re too busy packing.”

 

“Alright then, if you say so, but don’t you dare get hurt, Hera’s gonna kill me you do.”

 

“Stop talking and help me up.”

 

With Johnson’s help Amanda managed to climb through the hole and onto the roof, then she slid down right in front of the door and opened it, all of it done without alerting anyone of their doings.

 

“Now what?” said Amanda

 

“Now we crawl through this hole in the base wall, we’re lucky this base is old.” said Johnson

 

One by one they crawled through the hole. They escaped the inner perimeter of the base but they still had to cross the outer perimeter, the problem with that was the fact that most of that was open ground. They could be spotted easily and without their weapons their fate would be sealed. There was a place where they could hide though, an abandoned construction site of a two storey house. As they were nearing the abandoned site, without any warning bullets started flying in their direction. Without thinking they ran for it, managing to hide from the incoming volley of small arms fire that wasn’t actually coming from the base but from the south of it. With a quick peek Johnson identified the shooters as FIA guerillas that were rapidly enclosing on their position.

 

“Ah shit, two technicals and and a dozen foot soldiers.” said Johnson

 

“We can’t surrender, not to them!” yelled Allan

 

“Why can’t we surrender?” asked Amanda. “We’re surrounded!”

 

“During the war one of our guys got separated from his team after a heli was shot down. He was captured by the FIA. They literally crucified him in the center of Kavala.” said Johnson

 

“Oh…”

 

The volley of gunfire was getting closer by the second. The concrete began to succumb to the intense gunfire, bullets from the M2 machine guns of the technicals were already piercing it. But then, it stopped for a few seconds and then restarted but they changed the target. In a matter of seconds the M2s fell silent followed by the terrified screams of the insurgents as they were trying to fire back. One by one the twelve insurgets gets cut down, the last two rush into the building and up the stairs onto the second floor where Spectre 2-4 laid down, waiting for the gunfight to end. The two took aim at the operatives but right before they could fire a red blade swept across their torsos cutting them in half. As the corpses fell onto the ground it was revealed who cut them down: who else but their commander.

 

Johnson sighed in relief. “Thanks God you showed up! About damn time.”

 

“You know I always come to the rescue. Now come on, we can’t stay here, the Prowler’s outside, let’s go.”

“But what about Sabine and the others?” asked Amanda

 

“There will be another chance, for now your safety is paramount to me.”

 

“Let’s leave this hell hole then!” said Johnson

 

“After you.” said Hera


	10. Operation Blind Giant

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Around a month since the last chapter, school kinda intervened in the making of this one. It is still quite short, at least to my standards. Still no promisses when the next chapter is going to drop. Anyways have a good read.

**_ Chapter 7 – Operation Blind Giant _ **

 

Two weeks had passed since the incident on Altis and a week since the CTRG packed up and left Earth for good. Under the Chancellor's order the CTRG would be integrated in the GAR as a black operations unit under the command of General Syndulla and would only receive orders and report only to his person and no one else. As for a new base the Chancellor had that covered as well, a new complex had begun building a few kilometers away from the Republic High Command. The base itself would be meant to be extremely secretive, no one apart from CTRG personnel or the Chancellor himself would be allowed entrance. One of the most important and secret projects that would be conducted on its premises would be the training of the first generation of Imperial Inquisitors during the late parts of the Clone Wars. It would also be the place that Operating Knightfall would be conceived.

The 6th Mid-Rim Fleet under the command of Admiral Victor Randala was in orbit over Umbara, bombarding every single major military and civilian target under direct orders from General Syndulla. The strategy was a simple but effective one, simply bombard the enemies until they surrender. Everybody believed that the Umbarans would surrender within the first few days of the bombarding beginning but there was no sign of them even considering surrender. Not to even mention that the Galactic Senate wanted a victory for the Republic and were pushing Chancellor Palpatine to order an attack on Umbara to bring the planet in the Republic’s hands once and for all. And so, he did, the order was given to take Umbara. With the numbers she had Hera knew full well it was suicide, simple math showed that the Umbarans had a 20 to 1 advantage even with the CTRG forces that she brought from Earth, she simply needed more. With advice from Admiral Randala she got in contact with the 41st Recon Corps and its leader Jedi Master Luminara Unduli. The 41st were experts in jungle-like environment, it was really the only reason Hera even considered calling for help from a Jedi. Master Luminara gladly accepted the request to reinforce the impending invasion of Umbara, they would arrive within the next rotation. There was though one more step before the invasion could be green lit: an operation that Hera devised in a rush to neutralize the Umbaran leadership, essentially cut the head off the snake and codenamed it Operation Blind Giant. The operation was set to take place twelve hours before the set time of the invasion but all of it was just a ruse to cover Hera’s true objective on the planet surface: to take out Dooku's apprentice Asajj Ventress and the Jedi turncoat Pong Krell that were leading the Umbaran and CIS forces. Even though Ventress and Krell were leading the OPFOR (Opposing Force) on Umbara, that wasn’t the reason why they were Hera’s targets, they were her targets due to the fact that firstly her mission from Darth Sidious required for her to kill Ventress and secondly because she wanted and needed to prove herself worthy of a title given to her by a ghost.

 

In order not to raise any suspicions Hera would take her team down to the planet surface with her as the 41st would arrive just as they would leave. She also made sure that any documents about the operation were available to the Jedi but would also be so vague that no one could track what she was doing on Umbara.

 

Using Palpatine’s shuttle flown by the Red Guard Kos Faujat Hera and her team got relatively close to the base where Ventress and Krell were commanding the planet garrison from, way to close but still remained undetected somehow. They landed three kilometers west of the base and due to the hard terrain, it would make for a two hour walk from the landing zone to a hill overlooking the target location. They began their trek shortly after landing, as soon as getting their bearings on that foggy, wet and dark alien planet. The red guard was left behind to guard the shuttle just in case any Umbaran patrols stumble upon it.

 

For everyone involved apart from the red guard and Hera it was the first time any of them ever stepped foot on an alien planet. Surprisingly it didn’t feel all that different apart from the atmosphere weighing on them heavily and the environment didn’t help either. From first observation it seemed that the vegetation on the planet didn’t develop with photosynthesis but some other way in which light wouldn’t be involved as there barely was any hitting the planet surface. It was something unsettling about the environment around them, it somehow felt hostile, almost like the planet itself didn’t want them there.

 

As they were nearing their last part of their trek everyone started feeling like they were being watched. Hera felt it as well, there was something masking its presence in Force in their vicinity. They continued on until she felt it come straight towards them at a high speed. A double-bladed green lightsaber spinning was headed straight for their heads. Hera being at the front of the group she had the chance to deflect it with her own lightsaber. That resulted in it flying in a boomerang arch back to whoever threw it, shortly after a second double-bladed lightsaber was ignited, this time a blue one. Now with both lightsabers active Hera could easily identify the perpetrator, it was the Jedi turncoat Pong Krell. He proceeded to jump down in front of them from the tree he was hanging from, both lightsabers activated. Hera took a step back as she began to comprehend how tall Krell truly was. Saying that he was towering over her would be an understatement.

 

“You must be Sidious’ new lap dog. I have expected you.”

 

Hera remained silent.

 

“I suggest you surrender, while you still have the chance.” said Krell

 

She kept silence apart from one whisper to Johnson. _“Anything on thermals?”_ He nodded no. She then took a step forward, raising her lightsaber forwards. “We are alone here Krell and you know what I came here for, your head. Why would you be so foolish to do such a thing?           ”

 

“I don’t need soldiers to cover my back unlike you. I will take care of your puny expendables as soon I take your head of your shoulders.”

 

His statement angered Hera. She always had a deep hatred for any officer that’s willing to put his career over the well-being of his soldiers and that’s exactly what Krell had done with his soldiers, the clones, he simply threw them into the meat grinder like they’re nothing. That was all that she needed to hear from him, it would soon be over for him anyways, there was no need for a clichéd villain speech. She charged at him, leaping into the air and coming crashing down on his guard. Krell easily managed to block her attack and managed to throw her behind him. Exploiting a moment of weakness Krell force-pushed Hera, throwing her back a few meters as she managed to slow herself down by slamming her lightsaber in the ground. Krell took this time to focus on Specter 2-4 and began charging towards them. Obviously, they opened fire and began walking backwards. Bullets were hitting but Krell kept on coming but then he suddenly stopped. They could see it in his expression that he didn’t intend to do it. He slowly began levitating above ground and then suddenly pulled back with a tremendous force. Both of Krell’s right hands were thrown through Hera’s red blade, cutting them off. He dropped to the ground, reaching for the stubs that he now had instead of right arms. Hera picked up one of his double-bladed lightsabers as she was walking over to him. She kneeled down next to the injured Krell and began sticking two of her fingers in a bullet wound he’d taken while charging at her team. Krell could only scream in pain.

 

“So how does it fell Krell? How does pain feel?”

 

“Go to Sith Hell!” yelled Krell

 

“Way ahead of you…” said Hera as she reached over him to grab his second double bladed lightsaber. After clipping both of his lightsabers to her backpack she stood up, looking down at Krell with the now brightly burning yellow eyes and spat in his face. “And you call yourself a General.”

 

She then signaled her team that they’re heading back. As they began walking away Hera could hear Krell yell at her.

 

“So, you’re just going to leave me here?! How dare you?! Do you know who I am?!”

 

Hera turned around to the wounded Besalisk, staring down at him in disgust. “You don’t deserver a quick death.” said Hera as she once again turned around and walked away, this time ignoring any of his calls for help or mercy. The trek back to the shuttle was just as uneventful as the first one. As they neared the shuttle, they were greeted by the tall red guard standing firm at the entrance of the ship.

 

“Get the shuttle ready for flight, we’re heading back to the fleet.” said Hera as she boarded the ship. She headed straight for the cargo hold of the ship meanwhile the red guard went to the cockpit and began takeoff procedures. Meanwhile Specter 2-4 joined the red guard in the cockpit and sat down in the passenger seats. Entering the shuttle’s cargo hold Hera locked the door behind her and called her master to inform him of her latest progress via holocom. Shortly after a hooded figure appeared over the holocom.

 

_“I take that Asajj Ventress is dead.”_

“She isn’t master as I had to return prematurely to finish planning the invasion but there is a silver lining.”

 

_“What could that be apprentice.”_

“I may have not killed Ventress yet but her lackey Pong Krell is dead.”

 

_“That is indeed progress Lady Terranis. For now, you have proven yourself in my eyes, you may leave Ventress alone for now, her time will come as well. You must focus on taking Umbara, that is your objective for now. Do not fail me.”_ said Sidious as the holocom shut off. Hera let out a sigh of relief as she headed to the cockpit. The shuttle shortly after took off and headed for the fleet. During the entire flight Hera again didn’t utter a single word, something that was extremely odd especially because whenever she would only be with people she trusts or likes she would open up, joke around, have fun but now nothing, just silence. Sweet, sweet silence.


End file.
